Temporary Home
by h0a4l2e1y
Summary: Annabeth is a orphan. She promised that she would never fall in love because she had to switch foster homes so often, but whenever she feels like she has a family she is forced to leave, but will she have to break her promise when she meets another orphan named Percy Jackson? Will she finally have a family at the new orphan?
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first fan fiction, and it is inspired by the song Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood.**

**Enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

I was in the taxi, drifting farther and farther away from the life I had known for the past few months but that life obviously did not last. I was on my way to the third foster care this year. My mom died when I was baby. I'm not sure how old I was. I was never able to meet her. My dad told me about her at times: she had died in a car accident; she was intelligent; she had blond hair and gray eyes, like me, but I will never know if that is true because the only person I had to validate that claim was my dad and I'm not so sure I trust anything he says anymore. I hoped that I was like my mom, though. People said she was an amazing person and someday I want to be that amazing person.

My dad got married again when I was five years old. He and his wife had twin boys, Bobby and Matthew. My stepmother and I did not get along, which just caused my dad and I not to get along. The boys were obviously much more liked by my parents than I was. My parents ignored me and I'm sure I was forgotten 75% of the time. The only time they remember me is when the dishes start piling up. One time, before I started doing chores, I stayed at my friend's house for three days and they didn't even notice I was gone.

I had done basically everything around the house when I lived with my father and stepmother, too. I felt like I were the parents! I'd cook, I'd clean, I'd take care of the kids, and etc. I couldn't do it anymore; I had lost the time and the patience for it.

School was a part of my life and I felt like my family was drowning out my dreams with some of their requests. When I'm older I want to be an architect. The subject always fascinated me growing up because it says a part of our history and it is a display of humanity that lasts (seemingly) forever. I could build something permanent, something that could last thousands of years and would tell a story to everyone ahead of us.

About a year ago, when I was in to my room and I had heard my father and my stepmother talking. I didn't suspect anything until I heard my name. I know it isn't right to eavesdrop but there are plenty of things that they have done to me that I could label "not right". Taking a few steps back so I could hear more clearly, I realized that they were talking about me but not exactly in the way I imagined.

"We don't need her. She is just a waste of space and money. If she doesn't leave,

I will," said my choleric stepmother in her usual bitter tone.

I had a feeling the _she _was me. Many people would probably except that I would probably be crying and start running toward my room by now, but to be honest, the words didn't affect me that much. They were just meaningless words from a meaningless person.

I didn't want to stay with people who that I was a _waste of space_. It would be much easier to do school work if I didn't have to worry about doing chores all the time. And one person can only take so much. Someday I want to have a true family, too; someday I want to have someone who genuinely cares about me, too

"How are we going to tell her that we had already put her up for adoption?" asked my father. I wasn't surprised that my dad agreed with my stepmother.

I was shocked. They put me up for adoption without even telling me! I did not think through what I did next. I belligerently stepped into the doorway, making sure they could see me.

"Don't worry! You don't have to figure how to tell me, anymore!" I screamed.

My dad was going to say something else but I had already stormed into my room, trying to get as far away from them as possible. I teared through my closet and angrily pulled out a backpack and quickly started packing my belongings. My dad came up to my door and quietly told me that there will be a taxi is waiting for me outside and quickly walked away.

"Okay, we're here," said the taxi driver, pulling me back to reality.

I paid him and walked out. I have arrived, but I'm not exactly sure if I wanted to. I looked up; it looked like a hotel not a house! It was huge! I'm sure there were about twenty-five minors here, which is a lot more than my other foster cares. I stepped in it wasn't fancy or luxurious, just massive.

A man quickly came up to me and said," I'm Chiron, the guardian."

He reached for my bags. "I can take them," I said.

"I insist," he replied.

I thanked him and handed him the bags. The bags were pondering and there were a ridiculous amount stairs that discouraged me to lug the bags up to my room. Don't blame me for being lazy! Chiron insisted…

Chiron seemed very friendly and understanding. All my foster parents were always very nice to me, but I continually tried not to get too close with them. The worst part about being in foster homes is that as soon as you start liking the people there and once you start feeling like you have a family, you have to leave again and basically start over.

I went to my first foster home seven months ago. I was really shy and was really alone. After about a month there I began to like a boy named, Luke. Everyone there was so welcoming.

I felt like I had a family for the first time in my life. Luke and I liked each other, but we were never able to admit it. Now, that I look back on it, I don't regret not telling him because I had to leave, and it probably would have just made the leave more devastating than it already was. After about three months at the second foster, I had to leave to another place. Since that day, I promised myself that I was never going to fall in love, make close friends, or feel like I'm part of a family while I was at a foster home.

This is my temporary home.

**Thank you for reading! Any feedback is encouraged and appreciated!**

**Please review, follow, and or favorite!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	2. Chapter 2

**I read the last chapter over and realized how many errors I made! I'm sorry! Thank you so much for those who reviewed, read, favorite, and followed. Also, I changed some of the ages because to be in a foster care you have to be under the age of 18.**

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**Enjoy!  
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**Annabeth:**

I followed Chiron up the stairs. There really were a lot of stairs. The place had three floors, and I was on the top one. He dropped my bags in front of my door and said to ask him if I needed anything. I thanked him and he told me that the kids were eating lunch on the first floor before he walked away.

The room was about the same size as my room at my old foster care. The walls were plain. They were painted a beige-like color. There was nothing on the walls except a few hangers and shelves.

There was a twin size bed with the headset against the wall. Everything was white on the bed except the headset, which is black instead. I sat on it. It was comfortable. There was a really big brown desk pushed on the other side of the wall. I needed a big desk. I studied a lot.

I heard a knock," We only have twenty more minutes for lunch," Chiron said from the outside of my door.

"I will be out in a minute. I just need to finish unpacking. Thank you for letting me know," I replied.

Chiron walked away as I quickly started unpacking. It didn't take very long. I didn't bring a lot of clothing or belongings. I brought all my awards from school, though. I put up the ribbons, certificates, and medals, which I worked so hard for, on the hangers and shelves. I exited the door and quickly walked down stairs. I was really hungry.

I FINALLY got down to the bottom floor. Did I mention there are a lot of stairs? Anyway, I walked into the room and started counting how many people were there. One, two, three…there were twenty-four! I thought there were twenty-five…so close!

"Welcome, your Annabeth, right?" someone said ruining my train of thought.

There was a girl standing in front of me. She seemed my age, 15, and had short black hair and blue eyes. She had on a leather jacket, black jeans that had tears everywhere and had the word "punk" on it. She looked like the type of person I would usually be afraid of.

"Yes, and you are?" I replied to the girl.

"Thalia," said the girl as she stuck her hand out. I shook her hand with both of my hands, which is a sign of friendliness in case you are wondering why I did that, and smiled.

She made a _follow me _gesture with her arm. Thalia was headed toward a table with about six or seven people all waving at me. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to that table. They all seemed so welcoming. A little too welcoming.

I know it sounds weird that I don't want to make any close friends, but every time I start to get really close with people I would have to leave like a month later. I couldn't have another family taken away from me.

I hesitated then decided to follow Thalia. I don't think I would have looked very nice if I had just walked away. Then I remembered something

"Wait," I told Thalia. She turned around to look at me. "I don't have a plate," I continued.

"We already have one for you at the table. We didn't know what you wanted so we just got everything," Thalia replied.

"Thank you," I said gratefully. She nodded in return.

I started looking for a spot at the table. A girl waved to me and patted the empty seat next to here. There was a plate in the spot so I assumed that the spot was for me. The girl was very pretty, probably a year younger than, a little shorter than me, had brown hair, and had bluish-greenish eyes. She obviously did put much effort into being as pretty as she is. No make up, no fancy clothing, no hairstyles that took a million hours to do etc. Thalia told me her name was Piper Mclean.

Thalia introduced everyone to me.

Conner and Travis Stoll were brothers that looked very a like. Travis was a little older than Conner, though. Conner was 14 and Travis was 16. **(AN: Or is Conner older than Travis? I don't remember. Whatever, its my story)** They pulled pranks and stole items constantly. Maybe that's how they got their last name…

Silena Beauregard was 16. She was about to turn was obsessed with her appearance. She had make up, designer clothes, her hair probably took her at least 2 hours etc. She was really nice, though. She says she wants to give me a makeover…

Make up and I do not add up.

Jason Grace was the same age as Piper, 14. Thalia told me they had a huge crush on each other. He was also Thalia's little brother. His hair was blond, but he had the same blue eyes as Thalia. He was a good leader and has been here since he was 3, which longer than anyone.

Then Thalia introduced me to Percy Jackson…

**What do you think? The next chapter will be in Percy's POV...Maybe, I might change my mind. Do you want the next chapter to be in Percy's POV? Review! Favorite! Follow! Thank you.**

**-h0a4l2e1y  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**I decided to make this chapter Percy's POV. Let me know if you any suggestions or advice! **

**Thanks for reviews, favorites, and follow:  
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**_dw910, trustingHim17, maddie4836, Fianna Hira, Athenasisters, Mythomagic-champion, and Kat Duagter of Hades_**

** Enjoy!**

**Percy:**

"Annabeth, this is Percy," said Thalia while looking at Annabeth and making a gesture toward me.

Annabeth and I stood up to shake hands. I reached my hand out and smiled. She returned the smile and shook my hand with both of her hands. We sat back down and started talking with Thalia.

Everyone at the foster care has been waiting for Annabeth. Well, everyone except Clarrise. It was exciting to have someone new at the foster care. We haven't had a new orphan in over a year.

I didn't know much about Annabeth. None of us did. All we knew was that she doesn't have any parents like everyone else. I didn't want to ask her anything, not yet. I haven't even said hi to her, yet.

I felt a tap on my back", Are you going to eat that?"

I didn't even turn around to see who it is because I already knew it was my best friend, Grover. Grover was a year older than me, 16. He has been my best friend since I was twelve, which is the age I came to the foster home.

"Here," I replied as I handed him my enchilada. I've NEVER EVER seen someone so obsessed with a certain type of food.

Anyway, back to what I was saying. I came here when I was twelve. My mom told me that my dad got lost at sea before I was born. I don't really know much about my dad. My mom said that I look just like him. We both have green eyes and black hair.

My mom disappeared when I was twelve. I don't know what happened to her. One day she left for work and never came back. That's probably the worst part of this, not being able to know what happened to her, but I still believe she is alive.

"Lunch time is finished!" said Dionysus.

"Who's that?" asked Annabeth pointing toward Dionysus.

"Dionysus another one of our guardians, he is a relative of Chiron," I answered.

"What is he like?" Annabeth questioned.

"He doesn't do much. He drinks, plays video games, and pronounces names wrong." I replied.

After lunch, we would have free time for the rest of the day since it was summer break and we all did our chores in the morning. We can only go out on the weekends, even though it is summer.

"I'll take your plate," I told Annnabeth.

I took her plate without waiting for her to answer. I could tell Annabeth was stubborn and doesn't want anyone's help. She thinks she can take care of herself, and probably can, but assistance can never hurt.

"Come on," I said to Annabeth.

"Where?"

"For a tour"

"Of what?"

"Madagascar. Where do you think, Wise girl?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Let's go take a tour of the foster home," I said as I grabbed her wrist and started dragging her out as she waved Thalia good-bye.

This house was really big. There are two rooms on the bottom floor because you have the kitchen and the bathrooms, which take up a lot of space, and five on the second and third. Everyone usually shares room but we still had one left over so Annabeth gets the entire room to herself. We walked out of the kitchen to the restrooms.

"This is the boys and the girls restroom," I said.

"What?!" shouted Annabeth. "I have to walk down a million stairs to go to the restroom!"

I started laughing.

"Isn't funny!"

"It kind of is"

She playfully hit my arm. I know she didn't intend it to hurt but it kind of did. She's pretty strong. Maybe its because she is tall. She is probably only an inch shorter than me and I'm 5'10.

"If it makes you feel any better, I stay on the third floor too," I replied. "Don't worry, you get use to the stairs."

"Which room do you stay in?" asked Annabeth.

"The one right next to yours"

"That's cool"

"Yeah, whenever you have nightmares you can come running to me."

She grinned and rolled her eyes at me. Why does she keep on rolling her eyes at me!? Do you think I'm annoying her? No, that's not it. We continued walking. She was pretty quit while we explored the first floor.

"Tell me something about you." I said.

"Well…" she thought for a second. "I really want to be an architect. When I was a little kid I would always play with the building blocks. I wanted to be an architect as long as I could remember. I feel like I could finally build something I wanted, something I control, something that would last for million of years."

She really is an interesting girl…

"Tell me something about you," she demands and cuts off my thoughts.

"I'm not as interesting as you are. What do you want to know?"

"Do you have girlfriend…?" she asked silently.

I grinned. This is my chance to mess with her," Why are you asking?"

"No, no, no this isn't about me! I was just wondering…"

"Why are you asking!?" I repeated.

"Just answer the question!"

"No, I do not have a girlfriend. Don't worry, you don't have to share me," she hit my arm again, but she kind of blushed too at the same time. My arm is starting to hurt. How many times does she have to hit me!

We walked through the rest of the house, which were basically all rooms. While we were walking around I realized how pretty and…intimidating Annabeth was. It was hard to make eye contact because her eyes are so stormy.

"What's the schedule?" asked Annabeth.

"We wake up at 7:30 am and have to do our chores before lunch at 12:30 pm. We have free time for the rest of the day since its summer and curfew is at 10:30 pm but we have to be in our rooms by 8:30 pm on weekdays. We can go out on the weekends," I answered.

She nodded.

I was okay with the fact that Annabeth got an entire room o herself unlike some people. I liked sharing a room with Grover. When went inside of her room. It looks like everyone's room did when they first came here, except her wall. Wow! There were awards everywhere. She had so many awards and honors. She told me that she studied a lot and really liked school, but I didn't expect this.

"Your really smart," I told her still looking at her wall.

"Thanks, my grades have gotten even better now that I'm out of the house with my parents," she answered. "There was a lot of chores I had to do when I lived with my dad so I didn't have as much time to study."

Annabeth was really good at school unlike me. School isn't really my thing. I'm kind of master at school expulsion. I keep on blowing up stuff. I'm really misunderstood in school. I try not to destroy the schools, but somehow it keeps on happening! One time I blew up school before it even started!

"What do you like to do?" asked Annabeth.

"I like the ocean and to swim." I answered. "Its weird that I like the ocean because my dad was lost at sea, so shouldn't I be afraid of the ocean?"

Annabeth shrugged.

"What?! Wise girl doesn't know something?!" I caught her hand she could hit my arm, again. I knew she was going to try to hit me!

"Let's go on the roof. We have a deck. It's a great view," I said.

The deck was my favorite part of the foster home. I was the only one in the foster care that went up there. Thalia came with me once but she refuses to come up, again. She is afraid of heights.

I don't really like heights either because my grandparents died in a plane crash, but I didn't think the deck was that high. I really liked the view especially at night with all of the lights. It's really noisy, though. We're in Manhattan so the streets always are full of cars.

"There's more stairs!?" Annabeth shouted.

"Yup, now come on!" I said trying to drag her up the stairs.

Annabeth sighed," Okay, the view better be worth it!"

It was really nice outside. There was a cool breeze even though it was summer. Annabeth squinted and used her hand to block the sun out of her eyes. I did the same. I looked at my watch. It was 1:15 pm, so the sun was still up.

"Can we come back at night? It will probably be prettier with all of the lights and its really sunny. It's kind of hard to see," Annabeth asked.

"The sun sets at nine o'clock."

"So?"

"We have to be in our rooms by 8:30 pm on weekdays, but we can sneak out…"

"I don't want to get in trouble on my first day here!"

"Okay, I'll be at your room at 9:30."

"But-"

" It will be worth it. I promise."

"Annabeth sighed," Whatever"

EIGHT HOURS LATER

"Knock, knock," I whispered quietly making sure no one would hear me.

Annabeth opened the door.

"What are you doing here!" Annabeth whisper-yelled to me.

"I told you I was coming at 9:30!"

"I told you no! I thought you were joking!"

"Well too bad, come one!" I said as I dragged her through the hallway by the wrist.

**How was this chapter? This is the longest one so far. I'm going to make the next chapter Annabeth POV. again because this chapter was much loner than 1 and 2. I will switch POV's every chapter. Please tell me what you think! Please review, follow, and favorite! Thank you for reading!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	4. Chapter 4

**Now things will start getting interesting! This chapter is in Annabeth's POV. I'm starting school soon so I will try my best to update. I won't be able to update as often as I am right know. Let me know if you have any advice or suggestions!**

**Thank you for reviews, favorites, and followings!**

**Enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

"If we get caught I'm going to tell Dionysus and Chiron that you dragged me here against my will!" I said sternly as Percy continued to drag me up the LONG staircase.

"We won't get caught!" said Percy insisted. "Don't be so negative!"

"I'm not being negative. I'm being cautious and logical!"

"Whatever, Wise girl."

Wise girl. I liked that name. I took it name as a compliment. I haven't been complimented in a long time. It was nice to hear that there was someone that thought I was good at something. Percy is really nice to me…

"Wow…" I must have sounded pretty stupid.

We have reached the deck. I have never seen a view like this even though I have lived in this city my entire life. I never really went anywhere special when I was a kid. It was loud but the sound didn't bother me.

Percy looked at me weirdly," You have never seen a view like this? I lived on the sixth-floor of an apartment complex so I saw this view everyday."

"That must have been nice"

Percy smiled." It was. I lived there with my mom. I like to come up here. It reminds me of when me and my mom would on our balcony together every night," Percy said still smiling.

"When did you first come to the foster care?"

"When I was twelve. I left when I was thirteen and came back last year."

"So, you have been an orphan for while. I just left my home last year."

Percy nodded.

I felt bad. Percy seemed like he was really close to his mom. I wonder what happened to her. Should I ask him? Percy seemed okay with talking about it. He was always so positive.

"Percy, what happened to your mom?" I can't believe I actually asked him.

"I don't know. You tell me." I can't believe Percy is smiling. He's so positive and nice all the time. "She disappeared one day. Everyone says she's dead, but I know she's out there somewhere."

"She's alive," I reassured and smiled. He returned the smile.

I felt even worse, now. It must be so sad to not know what happened to your mom and people are constantly telling you that she is never coming back because she's dead. It happened so unexpected.

"What about you mom and dad?" I can't believe he asked me that. Well, I guess I asked the same question.

"My mom died in car accident when I was a baby and my dad kicked me out," I replied.

Percy nodded.

I really liked it here. Everyone here understands what its like to be alone. When I look at the other orphans here, I feel like I'm looking into mirrors. They are just like me. It's nice to have people that understand. Don't like this place too much, a voice kept on saying in my head. I was probably going to have to leave here soon.

"Everyone is so nice here," I told Percy.

"Have you met Clarisse?"

"No."

"Good!"

I grabbed Percy's wrist and lifted it up to eye level to read his watch. It's 9:45 pm.

"You could have just asked me what time it was!" Percy said.

"I don't feel like talking anymore. It's peaceful out here and talking will just ruin it."

We stayed quiet for about 35 seconds until we got too bored, so we started playing games with the cars. We each picked a color and the looked for cars in that color. Whoever had the most cars in their color won. I picked the color white and Percy picked gold. We kept on arguing on the color of the cars.

"The Lexus is tan!" I shouted.

"It's gold!" Percy insisted for the millionth time. It was tan!

"That car is gold" Percy said.

I sighed," Its yellow, Percy! Yellow!"

The game was fun, but Percy did not his colors. We argued much more. Percy told me he would always play this game with his mom. I felt really special that he wanted to play it with me.

"That car isn't blue. Its teal,"

"Don't get all fancy! Stick with the basic colors! What is teal anyway! You are just trying to sabotage me, aren't you!?"

"Maybe…"

"Fine. That car is cream not white!"

"What?!"

We didn't really play the game, just argued the entire time. Don't blame me! I was just trying to be accurate with the colors! I looked at Percy's watch again, 10:37. It was getting pretty late. Wait a second…

"Percy, when's curfew?"

"Ten-thirty, why?

"Don't they lock all the exits and entrances at 10:30?!"

"Yes"

"Percy, look at your watch!"

Percy didn't react very much, unlike me. I was freaking out! We are locked out all night! We are going to get in so much trouble tomorrow! Do you know how dangerous it is to be out all night in New York! We are going to get kidnapped! I know we are on top of building but there is a ladder! Wait…There's a ladder? I'm getting an idea…

"PERCY! PERCY! PERCY!" I shouted.

"What, what, what?"

"What is that?" I said pointing towards the ladder.

"A ladder."

"I never was really able to go anywhere when I was growing up. I know this sounds crazy and totally not something I would usually do, but I want to explore the city.

I had no idea why I wanted to go walk around the city at 10:40 pm. I was just freaking out about the fact that we were locked out and it was dangerous. Now, about thirty seconds after my freak out, I want to explore the city. I'm so weird.

Percy pressed the back of his hand against my forehead," Are you feeling okay? You do feel a little warm…"

I pushed his hand of my head." I'm serious, Seaweed Brain."

"Okay, but you still feel a little warm."

I grabbed his wrist before he could say anything else and started dragging him, just like he did to me when he was trying to get me on the deck, toward the ladder.

"If we get caught I'm going to tell Dionysus and Chiron that you dragged me here against my will!" Percy said in a really bad imitation of my voice.

Percy went down the ladder first. The ladder was old and probably hasn't been used in a while. It was attached to the brick wall so I was sure that it is pretty sturdy. Then I remembered how many stairs there were. Is there the same about of steps? There better not be!

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Percy asked jokingly for the millionth time.

I stepped on his hand. He was annoying me!

"You stepped on my hand!"

"Did I? Opps!"

There were so many steps! What is the purpose of like twenty extra unnecessary stairs/steps?! Once we reached the bottom floor, Percy asked me where I wanted to go. I really had no idea where to go. I never really went around the city.

"Come on, I know somewhere we can go," Percy said.

We walked around for a while. There weren't many people on the streets, probably because it was so late. I unwrapped my jacket from my waist and put it on. It was a little chilly. I have never been outside this late. I still thought this idea was dangerous, but Percy told me that we were going to go somewhere safe. I started noticing that we were getting farther from the buildings. Where the heck is he taking me?

"Close you eyes," Percy insisted.

"What?"

"We are almost there and I want it to be a surprise!"

"Percy, I'll close my eyes, but you better guide me really well!"

"I will!"

"I'm serious! If I run into a pole, I will never forgive you!"

Percy clasped both hands over eyes. I stuck my hands out in front of me so I could try to feel my way around. I wonder what the cars must have been thought when they saw us. I was walking very slowly. I was being very cautious.

"Annabeth can you walk faster! At this rate we won't get there until sunrise!" Percy said very impatiently

"Okay, fine! You better not let me run into anything!"

"Annabeth, you can trust me."

I have a lot of trust issues because of my dad, but for the first time in a while I felt like I could trust someone again.

I sighed. "Go ahead."

With my eyes still closed, he put his hands around my forearms and gently pushed me in the directions that we were going. I only stepped on his foot like four times. I thought that was pretty good because I couldn't see anything and I didn't know were I was going.

We walked for about ten more steps until I felt that I was no longer walking on the concrete of the sidewalk. I was walking on grass instead.

"We're here," Percy said. You could tell he was excited, happy or both.

I smiled I was excited too.

"You can open your eyes, now!" Percy said.

I cannot believe I came out here! I've never done anything half this crazy. This was dangerous, but I felt safe around Percy. I started getting sad because I felt like Percy is such a good friend and I will probably have to leave in a few months.

I opened my eyes.

**How was it? The next chapter will be in Annabeth's POV. Please review, favorite and follow! Thank you.**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! I'm sorry it took longer to update this chapter! I just started school and it's pretty crazy. Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites!**

**Enjoy!**

**Percy:**

Annabeth opened her eyes, looked around, and smiled. I had brought her to a river! I loved the water. I come here all the time on the weekends when we are let out of the foster care. Beckendorf, a really good friend of mine, had made a canoe for me. I hide it under the bridge. Whenever I come here I pull it out.

Annabeth just stood there and watched me struggle to pull the canoe out.

"Thanks for helping me!" I said sarcastically as I continued to pull out the canoe with no assistance.

"Oh," Annabeth quickly came and started pushing the other side of the canoe.

"Is this your canoe?" Annabeth asked once we moved it to the side of the river.

"Yes, my friend made it for me last year. I use it every weekend." I answered as I went back under the bridge to retrieve the oars for the canoe.

I handed an oar to Annabeth. I could tell she had never been on a canoe because of the way she held the oar. She held it a unnaturally and uncomfortably. Annabeth is smart, though. She will learn quickly. I stepped into the canoe, helped Annabeth in and we took off into the small river.

"Be very careful. This boat is very thin and it can be easily tipped over, so try your best to keep balance. I don't think you want to walk around Manhattan soaking wet all night!" I warned.

"Okay," she replied very calmly.

Annabeth had very good control and her balance was perfect. She was obviously not worried about losing her balance. If the boat does tip over and we fall into the water, it would have probably been caused by something I did. Annabeth did not know how to row, though. You could tell because we were just slowly spinning over and over again in the same spot. Annabeth and I laughed as we continued to spin in the same spot.

"I think we are doing something wrong," Annabeth finally said.

"Yeah, I'm getting kind of dizzy"

"Let's stop rowing"

We put the oars in our canoe and went wherever the river pulled us. It was quiet. The only noises I heard was the sound of crickets chirping and the river flowing. I bet Annabeth has never heard Manhattan so quiet. We weren't really in the city.

"Let's try rowing, again" I said.

Annabeth agreed so we took our oars out and started rowing again. We were spinning in the same spot again. I realized the problem. Annabeth was rowing on the wrong side. I took my oar out of the water and switched it to the other side. I must of switched too fast because the canoe lost balance and the canoe flipped over as we fell into the water. _Annabeth was going to kill me_ was my last thought before I fell into the water.

Annabeth was a very strong swimmer. She swam very fast to the shore. I liked to swim. I never was able to swim when I was a kid. I stayed in the same spot where I fell in and floated. I looked to see where Annabeth was. She was standing under the bridge and was twisting her hair trying to get some of the water out. I swam over to where she was.

"Are you okay?" I asked not very concerned. She seemed fine. She actually was smiling a little.

"I'm wet," she said as she continued to twist her hair.

I got out of the water and said, "Stop trying to get the water out of your hair."

"Why?"

"We are going to have to go back in."

"What?"

"We have to get the canoe and the oars."

She hit my arm, AGAIN! "I wasn't the one who flipped over the canoe so why do I have to go?!"

"Come on! I need help and you can go for a little swim!" I pleaded and started dragging her toward the river as she rolled her eyes.

We started wading in the water.

"Percy, you don't even know what is in this river! There could be a bunch of animals that we are stepping on right now!" Annabeth insisted.

"I've been in this river since I was twelve. The only things in this river are goldfish!"

"Goldfish scare me!"

"Well, too bad!"

I knew Annabeth wasn't afraid of goldfish. She was just trying to find a way to get out of going into the water. The river was small and there wasn't really anything in it. It was also pretty shallow. The deepest part was probably only ten feet deep. The water looked really clean, too. It was practically clear.

The canoe was in the middle of the river, so it didn't take that long to swim there. We flipped the canoe back over, which wasn't too hard because it was small. The oars were under the canoe, so we put them back into the canoe and got in. We started rowing again. This time, I put my oar to the other side very slowly and we didn't fall into the water.

"What time is it?" Annabeth asked.

I checked my watch and realized it was dead. The water probably messed it up.

"My watch is broken"

"Give it to me."

I handed my watch to Annabeth without saying anything else. Annabeth started taking it apart and, so assumed she was trying to fix it. After about a minute, Annabeth handed my watch back to me. It was working perfectly. I looked at the time 11:30 p.m. I wasn't tired maybe it's because I just fell into the river.

"Are you tired?" I asked Annabeth.

"No, but I'm kind of hungry"

"Let's go get a sandwich"

"We are 15, soaked in water, have mud all over are shoes, and it's nearly midnight. Do you really think any restaurant is going to let us in!?"

She had a point.

"Once we are dry and wipe the mud of our shoes, I'm sure we could eat at some restaurant that's open all night. By the time we get to the city, we will probably already be dry."

We started walking toward the city. Maybe we can go to a nearby gas station and get a sandwich or something.

We walked through the ally of many buildings so we could there faster. That was probably not the smartest idea. Walking through a dark ally in the middle of the night in New York was probably not my best idea. I can't believe Annabeth actually agreed to do that. She must have been really hungry. I was really hungry too.

We found a gas station on the right side of the foster care. I took my wallet out to see if my money had gotten wet. I'm pretty sure that it would be fine because my wallet has a zipper and I don't think that the water had soaked through the leather. My money was fine as I'd expected.

"I'll wait out here." Annabeth said.

"Are you crazy?! Do you know how many psychos there are out here?! You'regoing to get kidnapped if I leave you alone!"

"I can take care of myself!"

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the entrance. She is so stubborn, but so am I. I refuse to let her out here alone. When we walked in, I noticed that an ugly and smelly cashier was sleeping in a chair behind the counter. I very impatiently hit the bell very hard, so he could hear it and wake up.

He woke up with a start and asked, "Can I help you?" obviously still half-asleep.

I asked for two sandwiches, gave him the money and quickly walked out. I handed Annabeth a sandwich as we sat down on a bench outside the park. I took a bite of my sandwich. It tasted really bad, but I was too hungry to really care. Annabeth took a bite and made disgusted expression.

"This sandwich is terrible," she said.

"Yeah, disgusting," I said taking another bite.

The taste didn't seem to bother Annabeth that much, probably because she was hungry.

"How are we going to get back into the foster care before Chiron and Dionysus wake up?" Annabeth asked.

"Thalia," I quickly replied.

"What?"

"Thalia's room is on the bottom floor so, we can knock on her window and she can let us in."

"Okay."

We fell asleep on a bench at the bus stop. I set an alarm on my watch before we fell asleep. It was 1:00 a.m. We have 5 hours to sleep because we have to get inside the foster care at least an hour before Chiron and Dionysus. We very quickly fell asleep.

When I woke up, the sky was still a little dim. The sun would probably rise in about half an hour. I turned my head to the right so I could shake Annabell awake, but I didn't really need to shake her. As soon as I put my hand on her shoulder she started waking up. Annabell was a very light sleeper unlike me.

"What time is it? Annabeth said while yawning.

"6:00 a.m."

"Let's go back to the foster care."

"Okay"

The foster care was a very short distance away so, it didn't take long to walk there. We went to the back of the foster care, were Thalia'a room is at. We looked through the window to see if it was thought room and saw Thalia reading a book. We started knocking on the window. Thalia instantly noticed us and ran to the window.

"What are you doing out here?" Thalia whispered-yelled. She didn't want to wake up here roommate.

"It's a long story. We'll tell you later. Let us in!" I replied.

Thalia quietly helped us get in and we ran out into the hall and into Annabeth'a room.

"What are we going to tell Thalia?" Annabell asked.

"The truth. I answered. "She won't tell Chiton. She's snuck out plenty of times before."

"Okay"

I checked my watch again to see to see what time it was. It was 6:14 a.m. We probably had about an hour before Chiron or Dionysus wake up.

"Thanks for taking me out, Percy. I had a lot of fun." Annabeth said to me while smiling

"You are very welcome. I had a lot of fun too."

Someone knocked on the door.

"Now, tell me what happened!" Thalia shouted from the outside of Annabeth's door.

Annabeth stood up and walked to door to open it.

Thalia sat next to us and waited for an answer.

"Annabeth will explain," I said as I walked out the door.

Annabeth didn't look very upset when I left. She probably wanted to talk to Thalia alone. Annabeth hasn't talk to since lunch yesterday. Thalia was one of her greatest friend here.

I know it's still early and he probably isn't awake, yet. I'll have to wake him up. I really wanted to talk to Grover.

**How was this chapter? I'm sorry it took so long to update. I will try to update more often. Next chapter will be in Annabeth's POV! Please review, favorite, and follow! Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello! This chapter is in Annabeth's POV! Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites! Enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

"Where do you want me to start?" I asked Thalia who was waiting for an explination on how Me and Percy got locked out.

"How, why, when, where?

I started by telling her how we got outside until we were interrupted by the sound of Chiron walking down the hall. I looked at the clock on my bedside table and saw that it was 7:25 a.m. Its morning already? Time really does fly.

"Time to get up! called Chrion.

"Come on. We better start working on our chores. You can tell me the rest of your little adventure when we start our chores."

You can chose what chore you want to do as long as its not taken, so if you want a certain chore you have to wake up early before someone else choses it. I loved that rule. I always wake up and get ready much earlier before everyone else. Me and Thalia went into the hallway to see the list of chores that you can choose. There were 25 different chores, so everyone hada chore to do. Me and Thalia decided that we would sweep the kitchen together, that way we can still talk to each other.

When I started telling Thalia about the deck, she told me that she had went up there before. She doesn't want to go back up there. Thalia won't tell me why...

Thalia was sloppyly sweeping the floor, unlike me. I was determined to make this place spotless. People cook and eat her so I wanted to keep it as clean as possible. Even tough I was talking, I still concentrated on cleaning.

"When do we stop our chores?" I asked.

"When Chiron approves of the job we did"

I nodded in response and continued to tell her what happened. Thalia didn't interrupt me as I told my story.

"Why did you want to go to the city?" Thalia asked once I finished talking.

"Like I said, I have never done anything risky or adventorous my entire life. I wanted to feel like I finally had freedom. I was also curious."

Thalia nodded,"I felt like I was trapped until I came here. This is a good place. Everyone here is praticcally family."

My heart started to feel heavy.

_"Your going to leave. Remember this is your temporary home,"_a voice kept on sayingin my head.

"I'm sorry," told Thalia as I quickly ran to my room.

It must have been pretty rude of me to run away like that, but I need think. I hated being a foster child. I never get to have a family. All my the girls at my school would always complain about there family, and they don't even realize that I don't even have one! I feel like I have no one. The worst part of being a foster is that everything is temporary. When you start feeling like you have a family you have to leave. I hated that.

"Are you okay, Annabeth?" Thalia said gently from outside the door.

She came in and gently sat next to me.

"Talk to me,"she said.

"This place is scaring me!"

"Why?"

"Because I like it so much!" I probably not making much sense.

"What?" Thalia asked obviously confused.

I took a deep breath."I switch foster cares like everything three to six months and every time I start getting attached to one I have to move, again."

"Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"If you are meant to stay here than you will," Thalia said, cutting me off.

Thalia was right. I probably will be here for a while so I might as well enjoy it. I'll let destiny be destiny.

We went back to the kitchen to finish cleaning. Most of the other kids still weren't out of their rooms. I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 7:45 a.m. It has only been 20 minutes since Chiron woke everyone up. Thalia said that everyone is usually down by breakfast at 8:30 a.m. You can do your chores before or after breakfast but, most people do it after. People are probably too tired in the morning to do chores.

I had just finished and the kitchen looks perfect. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 7:55 a.m. We still had plenty of time before breakfast starts at 8:30. What was I going to do for half an hour? I should probably go take a small nap. I was pretty tired and I didn't get much sleep last night.

I went the very long staircase and went strait for my room. Why are there so many stairs! I'm pretty sure it will take me half an hour just to get up and down the stairs! I decided against the nap. I didn't have much time. I can always take one after breakfast, so I went all the way back down the stairs.

Chiron greeted me at the foot of the steps,"Good morning!"

"Morning,"I replied back warmly with a smile.

"Breakfast starts at 8:30,"he told me.

"Okay, thank you,"I thanked even though I already knew.

I basically walked in circles for half an hour until breakfast started. I didn't know what else to do. I could have gone have upstairs to read, but I didn't want to go all the way back up the stairs. I went into the cafeteria and sat at the same table I sat at yesterday no one was there except Thalia.

"What's up?"Thalia asked.

"Nothing much. I was just walking in circles"

"That sounds exciting," Thalia said very sarcastically.

"What are we going to eat?"

"Whatever you want," Thalia pointed to the table with several choices of foods on it.

I stood up and walked over there to see what was there. Wow! The chef really made an effort to make us happy. I feel like I'm in a hotel not a house. I got some oatmeal, an orange, and sat down. It tasted so much better than that horrible sandwich at the gas station. By the time I came back to the table everyone else was already there. I said good morning to everyone and they all returned it.

"Are you ready to start day two here at the foster care?" Selena asked me.

"I don't know," I replied before taking a bite of my good.

"You will be fine." Selena said and smiles reassuringly."The second day is always better than the first."

"My first day was really good"

"Hopefully today will be better!" Selena said cheerfully.

I finished the rest of my good and decided to go upstairs and study. School is going to start in a couple of weeks and I'm determined to do better than I did last year, so I better get studying!

I walked back up stairs and into my room. I pulled out my books and papers and started studying. This is the type of time when im really glad I have my own room. It was really quiet with out the disturbance of other people.

I'm really excited for school. School is probably my favorite place to go. It's something I'm good at.

About after 30 minutes into my studying, I heard a knock on my door.

"Who is it?" I asked annoyed. I was focusing and someone has to come and ruin it!

"Percy," the voice answered.

How did I not recognize Percy's voice? The sound was too muffled, or I was too annoyed to pay much attention.

"What do you want!"I yelled back even more annoyed.

"It's good to see you too," he answered sarcastically as he walked into the room.

"I'm studying" I said. "Maybe you should do that too"

"We still have two weeks."

I rolled my eyes.

He fell back on to my bed and sighed. He's probably board, tired or both. I started to think of way to get rid of him. It's not that I don't like his company. I was arising and no one intervenes with my studying matter how much I like them.

"Go play with Grover or something!"

"He's with Juniper."

"Who?"

"That's his girlfriend"

"Don't you have any other friends?"

"They're boring."

"Would you rather sit here and study math with me?"

He shook his head, but didn't he off my bed. I stood up from my desk, grabbed his wrist and pushed him out the door.

"I'll hang out with you in a hour,"I said right before I slammed the door in his face.

I sat back down in my chair and continued studying.

After about 10 minutes into my studying, I saw a spider! I had an extreme case of arachnophobia so I screamed and ran out the door as fast as I could. I ran into Percy's room because it was the room closest to mine.

I was still screaming.

"What happened?" Percy asked frantically.

I pointed to my room and quickly ran inside. When Percy finds out that it is a spider, I will never here the end of it, but right now I didn't  
care.

Percy looked around my room and didn't see anything so he turned to face me with a confused expression on his face. I quickly pointed the corner where the spider was with my shaky hand. He saw what I was pointing too and he didn't burst into laughter like I thought he would, instead he rolled up a piece of newspaper and killed it.

"Are you okay?" He asked seriously.

"How come your not laughing?" I asked very confused.

"Everyone has their phobias. I understand." He replied. "You can continue studying, now."

He went back into his room. I cautiously made my way back to my desk making sure there were no there spiders. I looked around a few more time before I decided it was safe. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I owe Percy.

**How was that chapter? Please let me know your thoughts! Please review, follow, and favorite!**  
**Thanks for reading!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! Sorry it took longer to update, for that reason, I made the chapter a longer! Let me know if you have any suggestion. Thank you for the reviews, follows, and favorites! This chapter is in Percy's POV. Enjoy!**

**Percy:**

"You what?!" Yelled Grover when I told him about me and Annabeth's little midnight tour of the city.

"It was fun," I replied.

"You could have gotten beaten up, kidnapped, killed or all three!"

"Well, we weren't!"

Grover is so protective. He even says he's my protector. It's probably because we are like brothers. I know the idea was dangerous, but it was Annabeth's idea not mine!

"Do you like her?"

"Who?"

"Annabeth!"

"As a friend"

The question caught me completely off guard. Did I like Annabeth? I don't know. I don't think so...yet. It just seems kind of fast...maybe? I don't know.

"She likes you."

"Yeah, I can tell. She just pushed me out of her room. I really feel the love. I said sarcastically.

"When a girl acts like she hates you, you know she's into you."** (AN: Does anyone remember that from The Demigod Files? :'( Beckondorf )**

"Makes sense," I said sarcastically.

"Go ask her out!"

"She will kill me! I'm telling you, she doesn't like me! I'm not even sure if I like her!"

We have a Fourth of July celebration tomorrow. We call it the fireworks. Should I asked her out? I'm very afraid that she will kill me. I wonder if Annabeth even new about the fireworks.

I looked at my watch. Annabeth will be finish studying in about 5 minutes. It has been about 30 minutes since I killed a spider for Annabeth. She is very afraid of spiders. I better keep in mind because the area were we have the fireworks has many spiders. She probably will not want to go she finds that out, maybe we can go somewhere else to see the fireworks...like the deck! The view up there will probably be much better. It will great!

"Get out of here!" I told Grover.

"What?"

"Annabeth will be here in a couple of minutes and I want to be alone with her!"

"I just came back from my date, and now your kicking me back out?"

"Yes, pretty much. Now go!" I said as I pushed him through the doorway.

I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Maybe I should have kept Grover in a little longer. I'm so bored! This is the longest two minutes of my life! I heard a knock on the door. I quickly stood up and ran to the door. I knew it was Annabeth and I was excited to see her. I wasn't sure why.

I opened the door and was disappointed to see it was Grover. "What do you want!?" I asked.

"I need to get my enchilada!" He said while pointing to a plate on the desk with a half eaten enchilada.

How did I not notice a enchilada on my desk! I walked to the desk, picked up the plate, shoved it toward, and slammed the door. About 30 seconds after I closed the door I heard a knock again.

"What do you want, Grover!"

"Grover?" I heard Annabth said.

"Annabeth!"

I stood up quickly and opened the door to let Annabeth in.

"Okay, I finished studying. What do you want to do?" Annabeth asked as she sat down in my chair.

"Want to go to the deck. It's still pretty early, so it's probably not that hot, yet."

"Okay," she said standing out of my chair.

I could tell that she liked the deck. I also want to go because we will be alone. We walked up the stairs to the deck. I opened and held the door for her like a gentleman. I looked at my watch and noticed that it was about 10:00 a.m. This day has been going by so slowly. It isn't even noon, yet!  
We sat down on a three feet tall brick wall that was protected the air conditioner and looked into the horizon. The view wasn't as nice as it was at night, but it was still nice to get some fresh air.

"We have a Fourth of July celebration tomorrow." I said.

"That's cool."

"Yeah, it is. It's a lot of fun. We have food, fireworks, and everyone hanging out in that field over there," I said while pointing to a field behind the house.

"That must be really fun."

"Do you want to go with me?"

She smiled. "As friends or on a date?"

"What do you want to go as?"

She hesitated for a while, which made me kind of nervous. It scares me when she thinks.

"I don't know. Let's just see how it goes," she finally replied.

"Okay," I replied while smiling. I like that idea. We aren't rushing into anything, we're just seeing how it works out.

We stayed on the deck for about another 10 minutes. We talked about how are day was going, and about what are plans were for today. I told her every part of my day, except the part when Grover and me talked. She told me about her day too, which was much more exciting than mine. I haven't even done my chore, yet. I looked at the time. It was 10:15 a.m.. I'll do my chore later. We don't have to do it until lunch at 12:30.

Annabeth went back to her room after we came back inside. She told me that she wanted to study for another hour. She studies way too much for summer break, in my opinion.  
I went back to my room, since I didn't have anything to do. Grover wasn't in the room. I lay down on my bed and yawned. I'm so tired. After about five minutes, I felt myself starting to drift asleep...

**FLASHBACK.**

_"Wake up, Percy!" My mom's voice called. "You don't want to be late fir school."_

_Oh no...school. I tiredly sat up and tossed the blankets off of me, as I stood up. I looked at my clock. It was 6:30 a.m. Why do I wake up so early? School doesn't start until 8:30!_

_"Are you awake, yet, honey?" My mom's sweet voice called._

I smiled in my sleep. The memory of my mom's voice always make me feel warm and...safe.

_"Yes, I'm awake," I called back._  
_"Get ready!" She said. "I made blue pancakes for breakfast!"_

_I quickly started getting ready. My mom is the best cook. I love it when she makes food me favorite color, blue. It probably took about five minutes for me to get ready. As soon as I finished, I ran down the stairs. _

_"Good morning, Percy!" She said cheerfully while she finished cooking the pancakes._

_I helped her put out the plates and silverware. We sat down to eat. The pancakes tasted so good. I haven't eaten them in so long. I hope my mom will make them more often._

I smiled of the memory of the taste of the blue pancakes.

_We talked about our plans for today and what we wanted to do. It was 7:30 a.m. after we finished eating._

_"I better leave, now." My mom said as she stood up and took her jacket off of the coat hanger._

_"Bye. I'll see you later," I said as I gave her a hug._

_"I love you," My mom said._

_"Love you, too"_

_TEN HOURS LATER._

_I had gotten home a few hours ago. Why isn't my mom home, yet? She is usually home by 2:00 p.m. and it's already about 5:00! I felt anxiety growing inside of me. I picked up the phone and called her, but she didn't answer. My mom would never not tell me if she was coming home late._

_I heard the door ring. I ran to the door because I was sure that it was my mom, but instead it was a police officer._

Wake up! I kept on repeating to myself in my sleep. This dream that was a sweet memory is going to soon turn into a nightmare...

_"Your mother is gone," The man said with no sympathy at all._

_"What are you talking about?"_

_"She disappeared!" The man said. "You will have to become an orphan, since you have no relatives that can take custody of you."_  
_"You can't do that! I screamed. "You don't even know what happened to her!"_

_"If she turns up, we will return you back to her." He grabbed my arm and started pulling me away. _

_ONE WEEK LATER_

_I sat down in the cold room and started at the picture of my mom. They had stopped looking for her._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Wake up! Someone screamed as they shook me awake. I bolted straight up and immediately closed my eyes and put my hands on my head, as if I were trying to block out the bad memories.

"It's okay," a voice said gently. I realized it was Annabeth.

"Mom!" I screamed still thinking about my dream.

Annabeth wrapped her arms around me, as I continued to keep my eyes shut, and hold my head. I knew Annabeth was trying to say things to make me calm down, but I had no idea what she was saying. Everything sounded so muffled. I felt hopeless. I felt like I lost the most important person in my life all over again.

"She's alive," I kept on reassuring myself.

After a while, I started feeling normal again. I pulled my heads off of my head and opened my blood-shot eyes.

I took a deep breath. "I'm fine," I reassured Annabeth.

Annabeth was not convinced at all. She looked at me very concerned. She didn't even ask me if I was okay because she knew I wasn't.

Annabeth hugged me again, and whispered," Its okay."

I smiled at her.

She smiled back warmly and patted my shoulder," Now, go do your chores!"

"What?!"

"Lunch starts in half an hour!"

"That's not fair!"

"Too bad!" she said as she started to drag me downstairs.

She was right. It is 11:55 a.m. Lunch starts at 12:30. You have to finish your chore before lunch. It's one of our most important rules. I looked at the list of chores. There was only one chore that hasn't been finished and it was...cleaning the boy's restroom.

Annabeth burst out laughing when she saw what chore it was.

"Well, you better get busy," she said pointing at the clocking trying hard not to laugh.

I will never ever ever get the last chore, again. I feel like I'm going to throw up. Why can't boys be cleaner! I usually have to use a napkin to use the door handler to open the door, so this is beyond gross. It smelled horrible, too. This is why I never use this restroom. I only use the one in my room. Once I finished, I looked at the clock and saw that it was 12:23 p.m. I quickly went to get Chiron, so he could approve of my job. He looked around and approved of it.

I sat down at the table with my friends. I hesitated before eating anything, tough. For some reason, cleaning those toilets really made me lose my appetite. I really didn't want to anything. I was seriously grossed out and I'm not really hungry.

I went back to my room after lunch. I sat there staring at the wall until I heard a knock. Anna Beth came in and sat next to me. She smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked for the millionth time.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied. "I just had a nightmare."

Should I tell her about it? Yes. I'm going too.

I told her every part of my dream and what had happened. I felt better after I told her.

"Your mom made you blue pancakes?!" Annabeth asked trying to lighten the tension.

"Yes, and they were awesome!"

It was 10:45 p.m. I laid in my bed wide awake. Grover is fast asleep and he snores...really loudly, but that wasn't the thing that was keeping me awake. I was almost afraid to fall asleep because of the nightmares, but tonight I feel a little better. After about half an hour I fell asleep, too.

_RING! RING!_ I reached my hand over to the bedside table to turn off my alarm. I sat up and noticed that there was a plate of blue pancakes on my desk! I got up and picked up a card next to it.  
The note said:

_I thought it was really nice how your mom_  
_made blue pancakes for you! I know the ones_  
_that I made will never be as special as your _  
_mom's, but I just thought it was sad because _  
_you haven't been able to eat them since you_  
_were twelve. I hope it brings back good memories! _  
_Enjoy!_

_PS: See you at the fireworks! _

_-Annabeth :-) _

She is so sweet.

**How was this chapter? The next chapter will be in Annabeth's POV! Please review, follow, and favorite! Thanks for reading!**

**-h04l2e1y**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello! When I read my last chapter, I noticed that my line breaks didn't show up, so I'm just going to type "**_**LINEBREAK**_**" every time I want a line break. I'm going to start editing better, so hopefully my grammar/spelling will improve. **

**I have a poll on my profile. It's not really important, so I understand if you don't want to do it. I just want to know who you like better, Jason or Percy. On a website, I saw that a lot of people liked Jason better than Percy...**

**Thanks for reviews, follows, and favorites! **

**Enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

I was sweeping the living room this morning. I would have swept the kitchen again, but it wasn't listed as a chore today. I like sweeping much better than any other chore. I don't have to get on my hands and knees. I won't get anything on my cloths. Sweeping is much easier than other chores.

I couldn't stop smiling. I'm so excited! Today is the day of the fireworks! I looked at the clock. It's only 7:35 a.m. I need to calm down. I still have 12 hours until the fireworks start. I was really excited to see Percy, but I also really really really want to see fireworks! I have never seen fireworks before. I always see them on TV and read about them, but I've never seen fireworks in real life. My dad never took me to those type of things...

"Morning!" I heard Thalia say behind me.

I smiled at her.

"We can go see the fireworks together, later!" Thalia said cheerfully.

What was I going to tell her? "Thalia...I can't go with you..."

"Why not?"

Should I tell her that I was going with Percy? I don't think I need to because she won't see us. We will be on the deck. "I have to...study," I said very weirdly.

"hmmm...okay," She answered slyly. I knew she suspected something.

_**LINEBREAK**_

I didn't see Percy for the next five hours. As each minute passed, I grew more and more eager to see the fireworks. I tried to pass the time by studying, but I couldn't even concentrate! I need something to do. I decided to read a newspaper. I don't watch TV, so I thought this would have been a good way to find out what is happening in the world. I haven't heard any news since I became an orphan, so I better start getting informed. I can see why no one reads newspapers anymore. It was very...boring, but I kind of like boring, I'm used to it, so it didn't bother me.

I looked at the time and noticed it was 7:55 a.m. I wonder if Percy has woken up, yet. I left him a surprise in his room. Percy sounds like he has such a sad life, but he is always so nice and happy all the time. Someone needs to do something nice to him, so I'm going to try my best to do that.

I heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I called out cheerfully. I'm in such a good mood.

"Me," Percy called back.

"Come in!"

Percy came in and said," Your reading a newspaper? I didn't think that they still made those!"

I rolled up the newspaper and hit him on the head with it.

"Ow!" He said putting his hand on his head.

"You should try reading some! They are good for your brain cells! Seaweed Brain!"

"Whatever," Seaweed Brain said relentlessly.

Percy is actually quite intelligent, but he is so oblivious. He can really be dumb sometimes. It's a good thing he's handsome...DON'T TELL HIM I SAID THAT!

"I better go do my chore," Percy said. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," I replied.

"Thank you, Annabeth," Percy said.

"For what?"

"I think you already know," he said before leaving.

I did know. He didn't have to thank me for the pancakes, but I knew he was going to. That's just the type of person he is. He's polite. I'm glad that there are still some teenage boys that have that quality.

_**LINEBREAK**_

I hope that the rest of the day goes by faster than it has been. It's been about 8 minutes since Percy has left and I'm already bored to death! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. You keep on anticipating Christmas, so at night can't even sleep. I really want to see fireworks. My friends always told me how beautiful they were, but I never got to see it for myself. The fact that I get to spend the night with Percy will make the memory more special!

_**LINEBREAK**_

Lunch was like every other day. We ate and talked. Everyone kept on talking about how amazing the fireworks were, which didn't help my unhealthy eagerness.

Amateur firework shows are usually illegal in New York city because there are so many building. It's very easy for one of the fireworks to start a fire, but the foster care can have fireworks because we are fairly far from the city.  
It's really cool that we can have the fireworks.

"Are you excited for the fireworks?" Silena asked me after lunch.

I smiled as I nodded.

"Me too!" Silena replied. "I'm going with Charlie. Are you going with anyone?"

"Kind of, maybe," I said nervously. I'm not sure if I want to tell her.

"It's obvious that you're going with Percy!"

"What!?" I shouted. "Where did you get that from?"

"You guys spend every second together!"

I didn't reply.

"I'll see you there!" Silena said before leaving.

_**LINEBREAK**_

I looked at the time. The fireworks starts in an hour, but many of the kids were already out in the field socializing, eating, etc. Percy told me that there were spiders in the field and that's why we are going to the deck instead and the field. It will be nice to be alone...

I heard a knock. I quickly opened the door. I knew it was Percy.

I opened the door to see Percy smiling. I smiled back.

"Do you want to go know?" Percy asked.

"Yeah," I replied as I picked up a blanket from my bed and exited the door. It will get chili. A blanket wouldn't hurt.

Once we were on top of the deck, we could see everybody already in the field below us. I grew very excited and it was very noticeable.

"Have you ever seen fireworks before? Are you excited?" Percy asked me.

"No, I've never seen fireworks before that's why I've been so eager all day!" I replied.

"I would go see fireworks every year with my mom. They are so amazing." Percy said looking at the stars.

He was not helping my eagerness at all, but it didn't bother me because part of what he was saying was about his mom.

I kept on looking at Percy's watch every thirty seconds. We still had thirty minutes before the fireworks start! Ugggh!

"Why are you so excited? They're just fireworks." Percy asked.

That was a good question. I didn't really know the answer myself. That's how you know a question is a good question, when you can't answer it. Why was I so eager? I guess I'm starting to feel like a normal kid,a normal kid that goes to celebrations and other things that I never got to do. I just want to be normal once in my life.

"It's just...I don't know," I admitted, sounding slightly confused and saddened.

"Maybe you will understand after you see the fireworks," Percy imputed.

"Maybe..." I replied.

_**LINEBREAK**_

Chiron announced that the fireworks were going to last 15 minutes!? Wow! That must cost a lot of money! How are we able to...

"Fireworks will start in 10, 9, 8..." Chiron started counting down.

It's about to start! What am I going to do?! What if the fireworks don't work right and start a fire!? What if all of them go off at one time!? What if I pass out?! What if...

Percy put his hand on my shoulder and said," Relax!" as if he was reading my thoughts.

"7, 6, 5..." Chiron continued as everyone else started counting with him.

Should I video tape it? Wait! I don't have a camcorder! Where am I getting these ideas from!?

"4, 3, 2..."

I think it finally going to happen. I think I'm finally going to be normal. I think...I think too much. _Relax_

"1!"

The fireworks went off.

A flame shot up into the sky and exploded and filled the air with colorful flames. The fireworks were loud, but they were pretty far away from where we were sitting so it really didn't bother me. I sat in my chair smiling the entire time. Is this what normal kids get to do? Is this what they get do as "family time"? I have never ever been able to go to parties or any type of celebration. This place didn't feel like foster care. It felt like...home. I've never realized how much I was missing out. It mad me a little sad, but I was also happy that I get to see the beautiful fireworks, bittersweet.

After the fireworks ended, I continued to sit there, replaying the images in my mind. Percy and me stayed out there for about another thirty minutes before we started getting tired.

We hanged out in my room for a while.

"Are you okay?" Percy asked as he noticed that I was still slightly dazed.

I nodded.

"How were the fireworks?" He asked.

My face lit up," They were amazing! Thank you so much for coming with me."

"No, thank you."

We started talking about the fireworks and how they looked. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 10:15 p.m. We didn't have curfew today because it was the Fourth of July. I yawned. I was getting sleepy.

"It's getting late. I should go," Percy, said when I yawned.

"Okay, goodnight, Percy"

"Goodnight," Percy replied as he exited.

I had a home, a temporary home.

**How was that chapter? Next chapter will be in Percy's POV! Please review to let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions! Reviewing isn't hard and it doesn't take long so it would mean a lot if you do it! The more reviews I get the sooner I'll update! Please review, favorite, and follow! Thanks for reading!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello! I'm really sorry it took me a few extra days to update! I've been really busy and it's been crazy! This chapter is in Annabeth's POV. In case you guys don't know my usual update schedule, I try to update every week!**

**Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites!**

**Enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

School was going to start tomorrow! School is one of the greatest parts of my life. It's something I loving doing and I'm good at. Summer was so long! I'm ready to go back to school. We got our schedules last week:

_First Period: Orchestra _  
_Second Period: Science_  
_Third Period: P.E. _  
_Lunch_  
_Fourth Period: History_  
_Fifth Period: English (reading)_  
_Six Period: Technology_  
_Seventh Period: English (writing)_  
_Eighth Period: Math_

I loved my schedule! It's so much better than last year. I especially liked that I had P.E. _before _lunch! Last year I had P.E. five minutes after lunch. Do you know how hard it is to run three miles when you just finished eating literally, five minutes ago! It was horrible!

You guys are probably wondering about my first, so I'll explain. I have always wanted to play an instrument. In my old school if you wanted to play an instrument, you would have to _buy _it. Do you really think my dad my would ever buy me an instrument? Anyways, in Goode High School you can borrow an instrument from the school, so why not? At first, I wasn't sure which instrument I wanted to play, so I asked Thalia, and he told me to chose the instrument that best suits me and start by eliminating the instruments I don't like, and that is exactly what I did.

I don't really enjoy loud things, so I eliminated instruments like the tuba, trumpet, French horn, etc. I don't have strong lungs so I eliminated the instruments that required blowing clarinet, flute, oboes etc. I have nothing against band; I just don't think I want to in it. It doesn't really fit me. Since, I had already decided against wind instruments, Orchestra left me with string instruments. I wasn't sure which one I wanted to play violin, viola, cello, bass, and harp.

Let's start with the harp. The harp is a beautiful instrument, but it is very expensive and large. It would be very hard to move from place to place due to its size. It's so expensive, I'm so afraid that I'll break it. Moving on, the bass, in case you don't know what that is, it's basically a giant violin. It's way too big. Next, the cello, which is also too big. The viola and the violin were the last two options, which I debated over for a very long time. _Viola has a cooler name. Violin is more common. Viola is a little deeper. Violin is a little higher. _I think one reason why I was debating with myself was because of how similar they are!

I asked Thalia and she said the Viola, but when I asked Percy, he said the violin! Uggghhhh! They did not help at all!

I remembered that I had a friend and she played the violin very well. She really liked it and it always seemed to calm me to hear her play it, and I wanted to learn it so badly. Purely because of that memory and the fact that I'm more familiar with it, I chose the violin. I'll see how it works.

I really like that I have Orchestra for my first period. You get to start your day with beautiful music! What's better than that?

Overall, I especially like my schedule!

**XXX**

Later that day, I talked to Thalia to see if we had any classes together.

"Can I see your schedule?" I asked Thaila.

She pulled her schedule out of a drawer, and handed it to me.

I skimmed through it. Yes! "We have both English classes together!" I said excitingly.

"Are you nervous for school?" Thalia asked me.

"More excited than nervous!" I replied.

"You'll like Goode. It's a really good school," Thalia told me as I handed her back her schedule.

"How long have you been going to Goode?" I asked Thalia.

"This is my second year. Last year was the greatest year ever! The school is pretty awesome!"

That response made me more excited. I loved going to school, even when I went to a bad school.

I looked at the time. It's 2:00 p.m. I still have like 18 hours until school starts! Ugghh! I can't wait any longer! I know I sound kind of weird being so excited for _school_, but I don't care. School is my thing. I'm good at it and its very important.

**"**I'll see you at school tomorrow!" I told her as she waved to me.

Now that I know Thalia's schedule, I went to go see Percy. I wondered if he had any classes with me. I'd really like to have a class with him. I know, I spend enough time with him because, well, we kind of _live _together, in the same house, but it would still be nice to have a class with him! Percy told me that he always gets in trouble at school, and he really does. He has been expelled like a dozen times! That's ridiculous! How can someone possibly get in so much trouble, and Percy really doesn't seem like a troublemaker, so it really confuses me. He says things just happen to him. Percy has been at Goode for one year just like Thalia. He said the only reason that he hasn't been expelled from Good is because he is really close with the principal, Paul Blofis.

Once I reached his room, I knocked on his door.

"Come in," I heard Percy say.

I came in, "What's up?" I asked him.

"Nothing much," Percy replied while staring at his computer screen.

I walked over to what he was looking at. He was on the school website.

"What are you doing?" I asked standing behind him.

"Reading about our teachers"

He stood up out of his chair, pulled Grover's chair out, and pushed it next to his chair, and sat back down. "Have a seat."

I sat down in Grover's chair and read the description of the teachers along with Percy.

"Where's the orchestra teacher?"

Percy pulled up another page, "Here"

I read her profile:

_Hello! My name is Mrs. Wilson! I have been playing the violin for 17 years and have been an orchestra teacher for five! I currently play in The World Globe Orchestra of Manhattan. I'm the orchestra instructor Liberty High School and Goode High School! I'm really excited to start the year and meet all the amazing musicians! _

"She sounds nice," Percy said.

"Yeah," I defiantly agreed. She sounded experienced.

Percy and I continued to read the rest of the profiles. All the teachers sounded experienced and educated.

Suddenly, I remembered why I came here.

"Let me see your schedule," I said to Percy.

He pulled a piece of paper off his top shelf and handed it to me. I scanned the paper and held my schedule next to it to compare.

"We had science and PE together," I said.

Percy nodded, "Those are the fun classes."

I smiled. Even though, I thought every class was fun...

**XXX**

I went to bed at 8:45 p.m. I always go to bed really early on the night before the first day of school. You always want to be fresh for the first day of school! I couldn't fall asleep, though. It's 11:00 p.m. and I'm still awake! I'm too anxious and excited. Remember when you were kid and you could never sleep on the night of Christmas Eve because you couldn't wait till Christmas? That's exactly how I feel. Actually, I might be even more excited.

"Sleep, sleep, sleep..." I said to myself repeatedly. I have to wake up at 6:00 a.m! I need to fall asleep or I'll be tired for the first day of school.

As another twenty minutes passed, I was still wide awake! I tried everything, counting sheep, counting backwards, and even drinking warm milk! This was getting pretty ridicules.

After about another twenty minutes passed, I started getting sleepy. I started drifting asleep very glad that I'm finally falling asleep...

"Annabeth!" I heard outside of my door.

"WHAT!?" I screamed. Are you serious?! REALLY?!

I got out of bed, angrily walked to the door, and opened it and saw Percy, "What the heck!" I shouted as I hit his arm.

"Good to see you, too"

"What do you want?!"

"Sorry, I didn't think that you were going to bed, yet," Percy said. "You usually go to bed pretty late."  
"Well, today is special! What do you want?!" I repeated.

"I was going to give you the school supplies that finally came, but I see you don't want it, so I guess I'll be on my way..."

"Wait!"I called out.

"Yeah, I didn't think you wanted to go to school without any supplies," Percy said handing the bag to me.

"Where did you get the supplies?"

"Chiron provides them," Percy told me.

"Wow. That's nice," Chiron is treating us as if we are his own kids and that really touched me.

"Yeah, it is," Percy agreed. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, "I replied.

I went back to my bed. Great! Now, how was I going to fall asleep!

**XXX**

_"RING! RING!_" My alarm went off waking me up.

I hopped out of bed and quickly turned it off. It was really early and I didn't want to wake anyone up, except one person... He woke me up when it took me like five hundred hours to fall asleep, and now I want revenge.

I went into Percy's room and shouted, "WAKE UP!"

"Annabeth!" Percy said.

"WAKE UP! I shout louder.

"Okay...Mom!"

Percy got up and looked to see if Grover is angry because they share a room and I probably woke him up too, but Grover was still asleep!

I laughed, "Get ready! We have a long day ahead of us!"

**How was this chapter? Tell me how it was! THREE DAYS UNTIL MoA! I'm dying! If you have any questions feel free to ask! Next chapter will be in Percy's POV. The next chapter will also be the tenth chapter! *Cheers* I'll have to do something special for the next chapter! Leave suggestions in your review! Please review, follow, and favorite! Thanks for reading!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello! I'm sorry it took so long to update. MoA came out last week! If you haven't read it, you need to! It's amazing! I got the most reviews for the last chapter than any chapter! This is the tenth chapter! *cheers* Wow! I can't believe its already the 10th chapter! Thanks for all the support so far!**

**Thanks for all the favorites, follows, and reviews!**

**Enjoy!**

**Percy:**

We had arrived at school and it was chaotic!

"2024, 2024..." I repeated my locker number to myself.

Yes! I found it and it's a top locker! It was very difficult to try to move through the mob of people also trying to get to their lockers. There were like 300 people in the hallway. It took me a few minutes to try to get to my locker. Once I finally touched it for the first time, I started spinning the lock.

I have always had trouble with my locker combination. It combines numbers and my left-and right's, the two things I'm worst at. I have gotten much better at t because I have used it every day for multiple years, but the dyslexia problem always stays.

"First turn it to the left, then turn right and skip one turn, Wait! That's the left," I said as I tried to guide myself through the locker-opening process, which always seems so complicated to me.

Suddenly, I heard the first bell ring. I didn't panic. There was still many people in the hallway. Everyone else seemed like they were also having trouble with their locker because hallways looked as if they hadn't cleared up at all.

I was confused. I had tried my locker, like, ten times. I knew I was bad, but I didn't think I was this bad.

"That's my locker," A guy behind me kept on repeating until I realized he was talking to me.

I looked at the locker number, 2204, then looked back at my schedule. My locker number is 2024, not 2204! No wonder I couldn't open it! I really hate having dyslexia sometimes.

I tried my best to get out of the way, so the guy can get to his locker, but even that was hard. It was so crowded. I felt like I was swimming through a ocean of students.

I started walking quickly down the hallway, scanning the locker numbers as I walked. I could only make out 50% of the locker numbers because so many people were crowded against the lockers.

"2018, 2019..." I said the locker numbers out loud as I saw them. I was getting very close to my locker. "2028, 2030..." Wait! I passed it! This is ridiculous! First period started two minutes ago and I still haven't touched _my_locker!

Then suddenly, my eyes spotted a clearing in the hallway, locker 2024! Bad news: I got a bottom locker! WHY!?

I sighed and I got on my hands and knees and started crawling my way through the mob as many of the people standing stepped on my hands and tripped over me. I saw that the locker on my left had its door wide open and was covering my locker, so I had to push it out of the way, which didn't make the person next to me too happy, to finally, start opening m I was probably going to hear the same thing in every class. As I was spinning the lock, the person above me opened their locker and hit me in the head _hard. _I could hear the sound of footsteps, lockers slamming, lockers opening, and other chaos happening around me. It's time like this where I'm actually jealous of Grover, who has a top corner locker. There is nobody on the right of him, and he doesn't have to get on the floor to get his stuff. I sighed this was going to be a very long day.

Once I finally got my locker open, I quickly shuffled my things in, grabbed my supplies, and started clawing my way through the crowd. I probably lost 25% of my pencils in the mob.

I glanced at my schedule and saw that I had Math with Mrs. Kane for first period, so I started walking to my class. I didn't know exactly where to go, but I have an idea because i have been at this school. Unlike a familiar facing i saw as I was walking down the hall, which was looking confusingly at a map of the school.

"Annabeth!" I called out trying to get her attention.

She didn't look up from her map. She looked too overwhelmed to care.

"Are you looking for the orchestra room?" I asked remembering that she had that for first period.

"Yeah, where is it?" She demanded finally looking up from her map.

"Go through the cafeteria, turn right and walk to the end of the 12th grade hallway, and take a turn toward the fine arts section," I said while drawing a trail on her map with my pencil.

"Thanks!" she said before dashing down the corridor.

I looked at the clock on the wall and realized that first period had started over five minutes ago! I quickly ran into my Math class.

I looked around the classroom and noticed that only about half of the seats were taken even though class started about five minutes ago. This took a lot of panic off of me. I can choose where I wanted to sit, and I probably won't be counted late. Everyone was probably having trouble _getting_to their lockers.

I started debating with myself, trying to decide where I wanted to sit. I didn't want to sit in the front because I'll get a lot of attention from the teachers, which is something I tried to avoid at all times. Maybe I should sit next to the widow in the back. Natural light is good for you, right? Yeah, I'll sit there. I hesitated; I don't want a bunch of sun in my eyes! I'll sit there anyway, I decided.

I looked at the board to see if she had written down anything:

_Welcome!_  
_Monday, August 27_  
_I'm Mrs. Kane. Choose a seat anywhere. Class will begin when everyone arrives! We will not be counting tardiness for the first week of school!_

Mrs. Kane wasn't in the classroom. She was probably in the hallway trying to help the students open the lockers. All the teachers had a key that can open all the lockers in the building. I saw nearly all of them using it.

I looked out the hall, and there Mrs. Kane was fiercely opening lockers with her key as fast as she could.

As I was sitting in my seat, I saw someone standing in the doorway. NO...

I felt vomit come up my throat as Salon and his friends came in. Salon has been bullying me since the seventh grade. Salon isn't really intimidating. He's actually kind of small and skinny. He just thinks he is so cool because he is rich. He friends are a different story... They are probably the meanest, biggest, and biggest kids in Manhattan...except for Clarisse and her crew.

"Hey, look Prissy is in this class!" Salon said as he and his friends walked over, and sat in the chairs next to me.

Salon started throwing pencils at me. Wow, he is immature. What are we in, the third grade?  
I ignored it until it actually started to hurt. "Can you stop?" I asked him

"Make me, Prissy," He replied.

I didn't scream insults at him. I didn't hit him. I didn't reply. I don't retaliate.

My mom always said that we were like fish, the bullies were the fisherman, and insults were hooks. When a fisherman (bully) threw a hook (insult) at the fish (you), you (the fish)  
would have to decide to if you (the fish), would bite the hook back (retaliate) or not. She always said that if you bitted back, you would be the one in trouble in the end. I understood this very well. Maybe because it's relates to the sea...

Salon pushed me off my chair. I casually got back up, sat back down, and he pushed me back off again, and again, but I kept on standing back up. _Don't be a stupid fish._

"You just don't give up, do you?" Salon said pushing me off again.

I stood up again, probably for the fifth time, and said, "That's the difference between you and me Salon. When I get pushed down, I stand back up."

Salon gave me and ugly look, but didn't push me off again. Instead, he and his friends stood up and sat at the other side of the class room.

"Good morning, class!" Mrs. Kane greeted us cheerfully as she came into the hall.

She told us a little bit about herself and the class rules. She told us that this was her eighth year teaching. She taught six grade science for the first three years of her teaching career, and this will be her fourth year teaching 10th grade math.

I kind of zoned out. I tried to focus, but I figured it wasn't really important. I was probably going to hear the same thing in every class.

She told us some of the rules of the classroom, until the bell interrupted her.

_"DING! DING! DING!" _The bell rang."Good luck! Have a great day, "she told us as we swarmed out of the room.

The hallways didn't look as bad as they did for first period, but they were still very crowded.

I looked at my schedule. I have science with Mrs. Sim next. Don't I have science with Annabeth? I think I do. We'll find out. I started walking around the hallway looking for my classroom. When I walked I saw Annabeth sitting in the back. She was pretty early. Even though, second period was about to start, most of the students weren't here, yet. The teacher wasn't in the classroom either. She was probably doing the same thing Mrs. Kane, my math teacher, was doing, and helping the other students in the hallway.

I went to the back row, where Annabeth was sitting, and sat in the desk next to her.

"Hi," she said while writing something down in her notebook.

"What are you writing?"

Annabeth pointed to the board with her pencils without taking her eyes off of her notebook.

I looked at the board:

_Monday, August 27_  
_Mrs. Sim_

_**TO DO:**_  
_1. Pick a seat._  
_2. Pick up handout on the corner of my desk and read over it._  
_3. Take out your notebook and write a paragraph about what you want to learn this year._  
_4. Wait until I say class starts. Please remain quiet until further directions._

I stood up to get the handout on the corner of the teacher's desk. It was a copy of the important information from the Goode High School Handbook like dress code, grading process, BYOD(**b**ring **y**our **o**wn **d**evice),electives, tardiness and absents, and etc. I already have a handout from first period, but this one had some of the class room rules of Mrs. Sim's class added to it.

After I finished reading the handout, I took my notebook out and started thinking about what to write.

"What should I write about?" I whispered to Annabeth.

She snatched my notebook out of my hands, wrote a few words, and gave it back to me. She wrote: _I'm hoping to be able to learn more about marine biology, marine ecology, and marine geology...Come on, Seaweed Brain! _ Well, duh! How did I not think of that?! I am really stupid sometimes. I erased the "_Come on, Seaweed Brain!"_, and continued the sentence that Annabeth had started for me. I explained why I wanted to learn it, how I got interested, when I got interested, when I want to learn it, and etc, until I had written well over a paragraph.

When I looked up I realized that everyone was already in class, including Mrs. Sim. Everyone was really quiet. I didn't even notice them. Everyone is always very quiet on the first day of school. There is a lot of tension and awkwardness on the first day. No one wants to say much.

"Okay, let's get started," Mrs. Sim announced while standing out if her chair. "Let's have everyone introduce he or she! Raise your hand if you want to go first."

No one raised their hand.

"Well, let's just introduce in the order of our last names," Mrs. Sim said. "First up, Beatrice"

My last name is Jackson. That starts with a J. Is that the ninth, tenth, or eleventh letter in the alphabet? I will probably be the ninth, tenth, or eleventh person to be introduced. I still had a lot of time before I was going to get introduced, so I decided to start thinking about what I should say.

"Next is Ryan" said Mrs. Sim.

I didn't really listen to most of the introductions. I zoned out, but they really weren't important because I knew most of the students already. They were too quiet, probably because they were shy, so no one could really hear them anyway.

"Annabeth Chase" Mrs. Sim said.

Annabeth should up next to me, and told everyone her favorite subject, what she was looking forward to this year, her old school, and etc. A few more people introduced themselves the same way.

"Percy Jackson," I heard Mrs. Sim call my name.

"What do I say?" I asked the teacher stupidly.

"Do you play a sport?"

"Yes, I do"

"What sport do you play one?"

"Tell us about that," she insisted.

I said a little bit about swimming, but it didn't really matter if I sounded stupid or not. No one was paying attention.

After all introductions were finished, Mrs. Sim brought us to the science lab, which was right next to our classroom.

"This is the safety shower," she said waking toward it. Oh, I know what that is... Didn't I tell you that I got in a lot of trouble?

"I have never had to use this shower before and I better not have to use it this year, understand? This is not a toy! If a chemical is spilled on somebody, I'll will pull this handle, and it will turn on. This shower is not like the shower in your house. It doesn't have a gentle sprinkle. When I pull this handle down, buckets of old and gross water will shoot down and basically flood the entire room. A very loud alarm turns on as soon as you pull the handle. Nobody touches it!" She said very seriously.

She moved on, "Right here, is the eye wash station. If a chemical gets into your eyes, this is what we will use to get it out. This is also not a toy! You will have to hold your eye _open_ for 15 minutes with water _gushing _into your eyes! I don't think you would like that so, be careful!"

I think she is trying to scare us.

**XXX**

I was walking with Annabeth to third period, P.E., which we also had together.

"This school is really big," Annabeth imputed as we walked to the other side of the school to try to get to P.E.

I nodded my head in agreement.  
We entered the gym and saw very few students sitting on the side lines. Annabeth and I sat in the corner waiting for instructions from the coaches, who were obviously waiting for everyone else to get here.

Once everyone arrived, which didn't take very long, the coaches split us up by gender and sent us to the locker rooms to change.

"To open you locker, you have to stop a little bit past your numbers, and once you put in the last number, you'll pull it to the right, the lock will get very tight so make sure you get a good grip, and pull it open. Now go change!" The coach told us.

The lockers were horrible. It took me forever to open. The 10th grade lockers are completely different to the ones I had last year, so it was really bad. I got really tight, so you would have to pull really hard to open it, but I was able to get it open and change. We took about have of the period to open our lockers and change.

After all the boys finished changing we went back into the gym and started waiting for the girls, who took forever.

We didn't do much for gym. They just explained the rules, what we do, how it's going to work, and etc. I didn't really except to do much on the first day of school, though.

**XXX**

Right after P.E. ended, we had lunch. I would have sat with all my friends, but we had assigned tables for the first week. The school wanted everyone to get to know each other for the first week of school. It was really quiet. Nobody was really talking to each other because no one really knew each other.

The school had put a sheet of paper in the middle of the table that had questions we were supposed to ask each other, but no one did. I read the questions and I understood why:

_Questions to ask everyone at the table:_

_What's your favorite color?_

_What's your favorite food?_

What is with all the 1st grade questions?

About 15 minutes into our lunch, the principal wanted to make an announcement about dress code, which I noticed about half of the students have broken.

"Your shorts have to be past mid-thigh," He said first.

Seventy-five percent of the girls wearing shorts broke that rule.

He continued the rest of the ruled, but I think that he really just wanted to talk about the shorts, since so many people broke it. No one got dress coded, tough. It was only the first day of school, so the teachers wanted to be easy on us. Our first period teacher usually checks us every morning for dress code, but they didn't today.

I didn't really eat much. Lunch passed too quickly. I felt like I didn't have enough time to eat. The food tasted better than it did last year, so lunch wasn't that bad.

**XXX**

The rest of the day was basically a cycle that repeated itself over again eight times. We get dismissed, I get trampled in the hallways while trying to get to my locker, I get to class, teachers told everyone the rules, and the cycle starts again.

My favorite teacher was probably Mrs. Kane. She seemed really caring. I didn't really dislike any of them, except for my English teacher, Mr. Boring. I'm not joking that's his actual name! His name suits him.

I didn't think it was boring. I wanted to get to know my teachers. Annabeth was not bored at all. She grinned all day. She was just so happy to finally be at school. Thalia and Grover were pretty bored the entire day. People always say the first day is always the worst day, which seemed to be the case for Grover and Thalia. This was a really long a day. I felt like trying to get to my locker for first period could have been a day by itself. It's because so much happened. It made life more exciting. I was starting to get tired of the summer. The same thing happened every day. I was glad to be back at school. You get to be around other kids. I didn't feel like an..., orphan.

I've always hated that word, _Orphan. _That's the word that people use to describe adolescents that didn't have someone to care for them. I do have someone to care for me, she just can't right now. Everyone someone says that word it reminds me that my mom is gone and I have no one to take care of me, no one.

"Let's start walking home," Annabeth said, jerking me back to reality.

"Okay," I said standing up trombone bench I was on. I had been waiting for Annabeth to get her violin from the orchestra room. I guess she's back. That was fast.

"We better get going. It's a two mile walk, now come on," Annabeth called to me because I was taking too long.

Yes, we had to walk to and from school for over 40 minutes.

It didn't bother me or Annabeth. We understood that there were many kids in the foster home, so they can't drive us. Annabeth and I wanted to walk. We are pretty independent, so we wanted to take care of ourselves.

"Wasn't today the best day ever!?" Annabeth exclaimed after we excited the building.

"I'm assuming you had a nice day, "I replied.

"Unbelievable day," Annabeth corrected me.

"I'm glad you liked it."

"Did you have a good day?"

"Yeah, I had a great day. I haven't even got detention, yet!" I said pretty proud of myself. This is first time I haven't gotten detention on the first day of school!

Annabeth didn't seem very impressed, and rolled her eyes.

**How was it? This chapter was a lot longer than the others! I wanted to make it longer in celebration for the tenth chapter! Next chapter will be Annabeth's POV. Please review to let me know how you thought! Sorry it took so long to update! I accidentally deleted thousand words, so (after I had a meltdown) I had to rewrite all of the parts that I deleted. I had a really nice time writing it. Please make the tenth chapter special! Let's try to make this my most successful chapter so far! Please review, favorite, and follow! **

**Thanks for reading!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi! I'm really sorry I haven't been updating. I could give you guys a bunch of excuses about why it took me forever to update, but I'm sure you guys want to read the chapter instead.**

**This is the Thanksgiving special! Yeah!**

**Thanks for all the reviews, follows, and favorites.**

**Enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

"So, how do you guys celebrate Thanksgiving?" I questioned.

Thanksgiving was scarily close. It made me nervous because no one seemed to be doing anything to prepare, and I really want this to be a special holiday! I have never really celebrated Thanksgiving. My stepmother made turkey (it tasted terrible) and other things like that, but I never really celebrated. Thanksgiving isn't all about food; Thanksgiving is about being thankful. When I was in that house, I wasn't thankful for much and people weren't thankful for me. It was unthankful holiday.

"We do what usual people do: eat turkey!" Percy responded.

"Well, duh! Do you do anything special?"

"No."

"That's boring," I replied trying to think of something I can do to make this holiday "special". I didn't want it to be exactly like my Thanksgiving had been: unthankful.

"I want to do something that expresses thankfulness!" I said.

"In school, we all have to write a letter to a person that we are thankful for," Percy said.

"We didn't that in my old school, but we were only allowed to write to a teacher. We can write to anyone?"

"Anyone"

I started to think about who I should write my letter to, but then I realized that was thankful for more than one person. I was thankful for Chiron, my teachers, Thalia, Percy, pretty much everyone else in the house, etc.

"Can you write…" I paused for a second as I thought about how many people I wanted to write to," …twenty-five to thirty-five letters?" I asked even though I kind of knew the answer.

"You can't at school, but you can at home," Percy responded. "You have to submit one for the teachers to read."

"Okay, I better start writing," I responded as I pulled a pen and sheet of paper from my drawer.

**XXX**

As I began to write my fifteenth letter, which was to Mrs. Sim, the science teacher, I realized that this year still wouldn't be "special". I'm not doing anything "new". I have always written letters. I have a lot more to write this year, but I'm still doing the same custom. I stopped writing, sat back in my chair, and started to think: What is something _new_ that I can do that shows thankfulness.

I am really thankful this year. I go to a great school. I have a bunch of friends. I'm healthy. What more could I want? This year, I wanted to give back to people that aren't as fortunate as me. I'm just not sure how I want to do that. I should do some type of charity work.

I found a list of charity activities that my:

-_participating in a food bank_

_-helping the elderly_

_-helping the ill_

_-donating/making cloths_

_-Big Brothers and Bid Sisters Program…_

The list had about 20 activities. Which one should I do? You know what…I'm going to do all of them! No, I'm not crazy! You can't put a limit on helping!

I walked to my calendar to see when I can fit all of these activities into my schedule. School will end tomorrow, and I will have five days until Thanksgiving. I started finding out about the organizations that I was planning to participate in/help to see when I can or should do my activity. I was activity calling, emailing, and running to the organization to talk with them to see what they needed to have done most.

I most of looked crazy running in and out of the house, constantly going back from the top floor to the bottom floor to email because the house has five computers and they are all down stairs, and using the phone several times. Eventually from all this madness, I caught someone's attention.

"What have you been doing?" Percy asked as I started at the computer screen as I waited for the _Big Brothers and Big Sisters Program _to respond to my email.

"Things…"

"Wow, really specific…"

"I'm doing charity stuff," I replied after Percy refused to leave without an answer.

"Why have you been running everywhere? Charity work isn't that complicated."

"Percy, I'm doing _twenty_ charity activities."

"Okay," Percy replied calmly. "That's a lot."

To be honest, I though Percy would be like: "Are you crazy?" or "That's insane!" or something else like that. I am very surprised that he responded calmly as if he had already known.

"Can I help with some?" Percy asked.

That made me happy. Now, I know that someone else wanted to help. I handed him the list, "Which ones do you want to do?"

"Do you want to split the list up so I do ten and you do the other ten?"

"Sure, that would be the fastest way to finish all of the activities."

"Can I suggest something else, even though splitting up the activities would be most time efficient?" Percy asked while looking at the list.

"Go ahead," I responded turning to him.

"Maybe, we can do each job _together_? We will still be able to do all the jobs, it will just that twice as long. It will be more fun if we do them together."

"That's a great idea!"

**XXX**

I anxiously as eighth period came close to ending. I'm rarely anxious to get out of school because I love school, but I have a lot of charity work to get done and I felt like I was losing time as each minute passed. I was also really excited to do charity work. I haven't done any charity activity since eighth grade. We are planning to go to the soup kitchen right after school.

_RING! RING! RING! _I rushed out of the room as soon as the teacher finished her teacher and said we were dismissed.

As I opened my locker, I realized that Percy and I have to walk home for an hour. We can't afford to lose an hour of our time. I quickly grabbed my things and ran to Percy's locker and dragged him out the door.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Percy asked as I continued to drag him off of school campus.

"Percy, you know it takes forever for us to walk home!" I said impatiently and continued to drag him.

"Why do we have to walk home? Why can't we just go straight to the soup kitchen?"

"We…" I stopped and thought. Wait a second; we don't need to go home! I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around and punched Percy in the arm.

"What was that for?" Percy said while laughing.

"This isn't funny!"

"It kind of is!"

"Why didn't you tell me that before I got all worked up!?" I yelled at him.

"I tried to!"Percy protested. He actually did try to tell me.

"What time do we need to be at the soup kitchen?" Percy asked.

"We need to be there by 4:30," I said while looking at the time and seeing that it was 3:36.

"We have plenty of time," Percy said while turning to the direction of the soup kitchen and away from the path to our home.

The soup kitchen was only two miles away. It would probably take us 30 minutes to walk there. It would be better to get there early, tough. The early we get there, the more time we have and the more food we can make.

I didn't have a problem having to walk to the soup kitchen. The weather was nice to me. It was cold, but I like the cold.

The city wasn't very busy either because it was only 4:00 so it was less crowded to walk too.

"Okay, let's start volunteering!" I said as I walked faster, excited to start.

**XXX**

"Putting on this hair net, thoroughly wash your hand, and we can begin cooking!" A woman said to us cheerfully as she handed me a hair net. Percy didn't need a hair net because he had a baseball cap on. I had no problem with the hair net, but I know many girls who would…

I washed my hands for several minutes. I was a clean person, and I defiantly do not want to be responsible for getting someone sick that I was intending to help. When I was in elementary school and we had a strep throat outbreak in third grade, the nurse came to talk to us about washing our hands. She said to wash your hands and sing the alphabet, so you wash your hands for about 30 seconds. I sang the alphabet five times just to be safe. I always have washed my hands like that ever since the outbreak. That day we couldn't even eat in the cafeteria because the grade that ate before us had five people throw up, so they were afraid to us in the cafeteria.

"The young man will be in charge of cutting onions, and you will make the bread," She said as she walked away.

"Don't onions make you cry?" Percy asked as he seemed slightly hesitant to cut his first onion.

"Yes," I said trying to hold back a grin when I noticed he had about a hundred onions to cut.

"Whatever," Percy said as he began cutting.

I was a good cook. I did it all the time when I lived with my dad because most of the time they never wanted to cook anything. Pasties were my specialty. I'm going to make the best bread ever. My job wasn't complicated: I put ingredients in a bowl, stir, put in oven.

I turned over and realized Percy really looked like he was crying. I started laughing.

"I'm fine. I just really don't like unions. They taste so bad that they make me cry," Percy said as he wiped his tears away.

We continued cooking for another hour then they said we could have a ten minute break.

"That was the most tearful cooking with my life. I'm glad I'm finally done with that," Percy said.

"Did I forget to mention that if stick a piece of bread in your mouth while cutting you won't cry?" I said innocently even though I didn't tell him this until after he finished on purpose.

"Nice time to tell me! Why didn't you tell me, and give me a piece of bread! You worked at the bread station!"

"Oops!" I replied innocently

**XXX**

They start letting people in at 5:30 p.m., and it was already 5:25.

I see homeless people on the streets on a regular basis because I live in New York, but I never really thought much of it. Today, seeing all the people out there waiting for their dinner, gave me a bittersweet feeling. I saw people that didn't have the basic necessities, which made me sad, but I also see people getting help.

I thought the homeless were crazy, lazy or just plain angry people, but what I saw was really quite different.

I met a man named John, who was about fifty and he told me that he was a former lawyer. He had a master's degree and was a great student like me, but he is at a soup kitchen. John worked hard, but from him I learned someone can take everything you worked for away from you.

This was really an eye opener because I always held the belief that if you work hard in life than you will get what you deserve. Well, John was an exception and so were many of the other people in this room. Many of them used to have respectable jobs but sometimes terrible things happen to decent people. Those are the facts of life, and yet, I realized that I didn't have a clue.

I could be homeless too. I don't have any parents to care for me. As soon as I turn eighteen, I'm out and no one's going to be there to support me, no one. There is no safety net for me. I have less than three years.

A little girl walked up to me with her mother. The little girl looked poor by the cloths she wore. She couldn't afford her dinner. How is she supposed to have a chance to do what she wants? She can't even have the things she need much less than what she wants. I was speechless. I gave her what food she asked for.

"Happy Thanksgiving…" I choked as she turned away. I doubt that she heard me.

I was going to cry. I ran to the back of the kitchen before I did. Percy followed me.

"Are you okay?" Percy asked concerned.

"Not really," I replied facing the wall.

"They need so much help," I said.

"Why do you think we're here? You are doing a really great thing. Come on back out. You're supposed to have a rewarding feeling. I know you're sad about that little girl, but remember that you just feed her dinner," Percy said.

Percy was right. I suddenly felt that feeling of goodness. I went back out and I didn't see sorrow anymore. I saw a bunch of people eating and having a good time with each other.

After all the food was passed out, I decided to meet a few more people. I saw a chair that was open at a table of three people socializing about the weather. I asked them how there night was and they said that the bread was the best it has been in this soup kitchen. Yes! I knew it! As they made this comment, I elbowed Percy because he didn't believe me when I told him that I could cook!

I meet so many people and they were thanking me for the meal. I felt appreciated. That's something I haven't felt in a long time.

**XXX**

The next days were a huge blur. Percy and I ran all over the city helping everybody. I feel like superman. This has really made me feel thankful. I have everything I've ever wanted. I'm an orphan, and I'm okay with that. I feel like I have an awesome family.

If you haven't noticed I've been calling the foster care "home". This took me a long time before I was comfortable with calling it home. The foster care is my home.

Today was Thanksgiving and I was oozing with niceness. I have been so nice that I want to throw up on myself, I'm known for being kind of evil, but today can be an exception.

I gave my letters to everyone that I wrote them too. I went to Percy's room to see if he was awake, yet.

"Knock, knock," I said with a yawn. It was early.

"Come in"

I walked in and was surprised when I didn't see Grover.

"Where's Grover? It's really early and doesn't Grover usually sleep until like 2:00 p.m.?"

"He's with Juniper," He responded.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" I shouted as I tackled him with a hug.

I'm so thankful of Percy. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be able to call the foster care home. He's my best friend. He puts up with me and has never gotten mad at me even though I hit, yell, and tease him daily —wow, I'm a great friend.

"Even though you are a seaweed brain, really oblivious, kind of crazy, obtuse at times, and sometimes just plain dumb…."

"I get it!" He responded.

"I'm really thankful that you are my friend," I said.

"Me too," He replied.

The rest of the day, we helped cook. Everyone needed to help. We have like thirty people in this house, which causes us to have a lot of food to cook. We had dinner at like 4:00 p.m. No one could wait! The food smelled so good that it was taunting!

I'm thankful for everything—especially me temporary home.

**How was it? I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Tell me how the chapter was! Feel free to leave any suggestions in your review! Next chapter will be in Percy's POV!**

**Please review, follow, and favorite!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys! Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is having a wonderful and loving holiday! Happy holidays everyone! **

**Thank you so much for everyone who reviews, follows, and favorites!**

**Enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

"Percy, you know I love everyone here, but do I really have to get everyone in the house a present? There's like 30 people living here!" I asked, wondering how I was going to be able to pay for all the Christmas gifts.

"That's why we do 'Secret-Santa'!" Percy responded. "We are actually drawing names later today."

Of course they did. I should have thought of that. In case you don't know what that is,( I really don't know how you would not know) everyone gets one person that they have to get a gift for and, it is a secret. Everyone buys or makes one gift; everyone receives one gift.

In many ways I thought "Secret-Santa" was a good idea but also a bad one. I hate you when you get a really lazy or cheap "Secret-Santa", and you get keychain or something cheap like that. It ruins a part of Christmas. You really know your family cares about you when you get a pencil for Christmas!

"Does Chiron have a system to prevent people from getting lame gifts for somebody?" I asked. I haven't gotten a real Christmas gift in a very long time.

"You have to tell Chiron what gift you got," Percy replied.

That brought me to another reason this may not work out well..."Have Travis or Conner ever put only their names in the hat or something like that?"

The first time we did 'Secret-Santa' that happened Travis and Connor were not very happy with only getting one gift, so to prevent that from happening again, Chiron puts the names in and _checks _the names right before we draw." Percy answered.

Christmas was next week, and the good presents will run out as Christmas approaches, so I was planning to go shopping as soon as I got the name.

"Why didn't anybody tell me sooner! I already bought presents!" I answered realized how much time and money I have already spent.

"I'm not saying you only have to buy _one _present. You can buy additional gifts. I always get Chiron a gift," Percy answered trying to calm me down.

I have a job. I've only had it for a few weeks. I'm work the Starbucks that is across the street after school and on the weekends. People need to tell me about "Secret-Santa" sooner because I already bought most of the gifts, and I will have to get the rest of the people gifts too because I would look really bias and unfair if I only gave half of the house a gift, but not the other half.

"The gift money comes right out of my paycheck!" I said while hitting him on the arm for not telling me this sooner.

I was giving Percy a small lecture, but he interrupted me to tell me that the house was going to start drawing names soon.

**XXX**

I was walking down the stairs to the living room where everyone was waiting to draw the names. I have gotten used to the long staircase. I never thought I would, but I did.

As I walked down the hall, I was able to catch a glimpse of living room. I saw a big brown paper bag in Chiron's hands that probably had the names in it and all the kids sitting. I sat down next to Thalia in a couch in the corner of the room.

"Good morning," Chiron said warmly to all the sleepy faces.

I realized that we were going in alphabetical order to pick names. I was going to be one of the first to pick a name out of the bag because my last name started with a _C_. That was good news to me. I wanted to have a broad range of choices to pick my gift-receiver from.

Chiron then called my name and whispered to me,"The only way you will draw again is if you get your own name, okay?"

"Got it," I replied as I closed my eyes and put my have in the brown paper bag. I scrambled the stripes of papers with my hand as soon as I felt all the strips. I just grabbed one and pulled it out. I put the little strip in my hand and glimpsed at the name to see who I had. _Silena._

That's perfect! Silena is so easy to buy a good gift for. Everyone knows she is obsessed with any beauty product of any kind.

I crumpled up the small strip and put it in my pocket and sat back down with Thaia.

"Who did you get?" Thalia whispered to me as soon as I took my seat.

"I'm not telling you!"

"I won't tell!"

"Thalia, it's called 'Secret-Santa' for a reason!" I insisted, refusing to tell her or anybody.

"Fine!" Thalia finally accepted.

A few more names got called by until Thalia was called. Thalia walked up and quickly pulled out the first strip she made contact with. She quickly read it and her face dropped to a hostile look. I don't think she is happy with whoever she got. Thalia crumpled up the paper angrily and threw it to me. I uncrumpled it, and I saw why she wasn't very happy: _Clarisse_. Nobody in this house drove her more crazy. I handed the paper back to her, trying not to smile, as she sat back down next to me.

"Isn't funny!"

"Kind of is!" I insisted. "This might be good for you guys! Maybe this can help you guys be friends!"

**XXX**

I stood in the mall (ugh!) shopping (ugh!) in the beauty section (UGH!). I hate the mall; I hate shopping; I hate perfume, makeup, etc. But I had to do this anyway. Silena is sweet, and I want to get her a good gift. I stood in the perfume section and tried to find one that she doesn't have. This was the problem; anything that Silena wanted, she had. I pretty sure Silena has every bottle of perfume that she liked from this section, so I moved on to a purse store.

Purses were on sale because Christmas was coming up. Thank goodness for the sale because usually Silena's taste is much more expensive that I probably can afford, but I saw some purses that she might like that I could buy.

This was pure torture. I probably looked at three hundred purses; I'm all pursed out. I really don't like any of the purses, but I was determined to find one for Silena. Maybe getting Silena a gift wouldn't be easy after all...

I walked through the aisle of purses, "Too ugly, too ugly, ugly, ugly..." I knew SIlena wouldn't like the purses that I looked at. Then I suddenly saw a bag that might have potential. I quickly snatched it up,bought it and left the mall. The purse was a pink leather tote. I didn't like it, but I'm sure Silena will.

I was tired of all this shopping, but them I remember that I need a few more gifts. I sighed and walked back into the mall. This is going to be a long day...

I pulled my list out and striked through the names of the people that I had already got a gift for. I went on this tiring montage of shopping for the next three hours, and I noticed that I only had one name left: Percy.

I started to think. What do boys usually like? Tickets to game? _No_. Music stuff? _No_. A book? _Yeah, right._.. I called texted Thalia. I need ideas.

_Me: What do I get for Percy?_

_Thalia: idk. Video game?_

_Me: No! He doesn't need to destroy anymore brain cells! Ugh! You're not any help!_

I closed my phone and put it back in my pocket. I walked around the mall to try to see if I might see something that he might like. I think I had an idea. Percy has a watch;I constantly looked at it when we were on the deck. I should get him a new watch! I know he likes a watch because he already has one.

You guys may be wondering why he has a watch because most people just pull out their phone when they want to know the time. He has one because in Goode High School, we can't bring our phones in the classrooms, and there aren't any clocks in the classroom because they can be "distracting" and they don't want students to stress out on tests because students will think that they don't have a lot of time left if they keep on looking at the clock.

I happily walked in to the jewelry store. I couldn't wait to go home! I was exhausted from shopping; I don't know how people do this for fun. Being in a jewelry store scares me a little because of how expensive everything was. I'm afraid that I will break something.

"Hello, do you need any help you?" A man behind the counter asked me as I approached the watch section.

"Um, I looking for a watch,"I answered.

"I see. Is there any particular style that you're looking for?" He asked.

"Not really," I said.

I found one I liked, and I'm pretty sure Percy would like it. It had a back face, which is my favorite style, and their weren't any numbers, just silver streaks to represent the time.

"Can I see that one?" I asked while pointing to the watch.

He took a key from his pocket,opened the case from behind the desk and retrieved the watch.

I took it in my hands and inspected it. I put on my wrist, but it was so loose that it slid right off. Maybe it's too big. I just realized that I didn't know Percy's watch size. I had an urge to call Percy and ask him, but he would definitely be suspicious.

"Is there a problem?" The jeweler asked when he noticed the unhappy expression on my face,

"The watch is great, I just don't know the watch size of the person I want to get the watch for," I replied.

**XXX**

"Where's Percy?" I frantically asked Grover while he was walking down the hall, and I didn't see Percy in his room.

"He's having lunch," Grover responded.

I ran down to the kitchen, glimpsed over the corner and scanned for Percy. I found Percy, but he didn't have his watch on. Yes! I ran back to his room and started looking for it. I had to find it. The jeweler asked me if I had any of his watches that fit him. He said I could bring one in and he could find out the size of the watch, and make the new one the same size.

I shuffled through his drawers, shelves, and etc. I'm sure Percy wouldn't mind if I were in his room or if I take something from it. Then I spotted the watch laying on his desk. I snatched it up, put it in my jacket pocket, and ran out.

A few people tried to say something to me like "Oh, Annabeth, where have you been?" and "Come sit with us!", but I just said that I had to go somewhere.

The jeweler said that he would hold the watch for me. He promised he wouldn't sell it, but if I wasn't back by 8:00 p.m., which is when the store closes, he would have to take it off hold. I said that that would be completely fine because it was only 2:00 p.m., and I was going home and coming straight back.

I arrived back at the mall and rushed into the jewelry store that I was in preciously to see the same jeweler at the counter. He brought out the watch before I even reached the counter. I took Percy's watch out from my pocket and set it on the counter.

The jeweler measured it and counted somethings. He took Percy's watch and Percy's future watch in the back where he told me that he was removing parts of Percy's future watch so it would be the same size as Percy's watch.

He returned after about 5 minutes with both watches. I thanked him, paid for the watch, and I was out.

**XXX**

It was Christmas morning, and I felt so cheerful. Everyone woke up early, and we were all opening presents. We were only opening "Secret-Santa" gifts, meaning that I would have to give out the gifts I got for everyone individually on my own time.

Silena wasn't hesitant to rip throw the wrapping paper. It made me so happy to see the smile on her face. I, then, told her that I was her "Secret-Santa". She thanked me for the gift, being the sweet person she is.

It was my turn to open my gift. I haven't even thought about who my Secret-Santa might be. Chiron handed me my gift. I lightly shook it like children do when they try to guess what it was. The box was pretty heavy. I really had no idea what it was.

I opened it and found a molecular mixology kit **(A/N: This is what I wanted!)** in the box! Go ahead judge me, I'm such a nerd! This is perfect for me. It was so cool. I haven't gotten a Christmas or Birthday gift in such a long time.

"Who was my Secret-Santa?" I asked while my face was still glowing.

To be honest, I wouldn't have cared if the present wasn't that good. It means so much to me that someone cares enough to put any effort to try to make me happy, but getting even more than I wanted just made everything better.

Grover raised his hand,"I was your Secret-Santa."

"Thank you so much, really. It means a lot to me, and It's so cool!" I said while giving him a hug.

The rest of the people opened their gifts, but I didn't pay much attention to them because I was still dazed by mine. The coolest thing I've ever gotten before I came here on the holidays was a keychain.

After all the gifts were handed out, I went to each individual room with a red wagon that I borrowed from Chiron (he has everything!) piled with gifts. Everyone thanked me as I explained to them that I was told about "Secret-Santa" after I purchased most of the gifts.

I noticed that there was one more gift in my wagon, and it was Percy's. The terrible thing about the wagon was that I had to DRAG IT UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS. Since I only had one present left, I just left the wagon on the first floor (the floor that I was on) and carried the gift up the stairs.

After many stairs, I approached Percy's door.

"Knock, knock,"I said as I knocked on the door.

The door quickly flew open with Percy standing at the door,"Hey!"

"Merry Christmas!" I said as I held out my present.

"Annabeth, you shouldn't have–"

"Well, I did," I interrupted while I pushed the present toward him.

He took the box and opened it,"That's so nice of you."

I smiled.

"I really like it. I needed a new watch. I have no idea what happened to my old one. It's like it disappeared. Weird, huh?"

Ah! I forgot to put his watch back! Ugh, who cares,anyway? He has a new one,"Yeah, really weird..."

"I got you a gift, too" Percy said as he set down the watch. He opened a drawer and pulled out a box.

I started to rip through the wrapping paper. I began to open the box, and I instantly knew what it was.

"You got me an architect lamp!"I asked.

"Yeah...?" He answered in an unsure way.

I quickly took it out. Oh, it was so beautiful. I would always complain to Percy that I needed one, but I didn't think that he actually listened to me! It was the best architect lamp I've ever seen. I felt so loved; I felt like someone cares about me, and wants me to be happy.

"I love it!" I reassured Percy.

Percy sighed in relief, and I gave him a bone-crushing hug.I think I might have hurt him but who cares!?. I felt so safe with Percy. When I'm around him, I felt like I'm cared for. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I might be falling for him...

**What do you think? How was it? Let me know how you liked it in your reviews! Next chapter will be in Percy's POV. Please review, favorite, and or follow!**

**Happy holidays!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey guys! I am really sorry that I didn't update sooner. I truly feel bad. I will start working on the next chapter as soon as possible! Thank you so much for still supporting my story!**

**Thank you for the favorites, follows, and reviews!**

**Enjoy!**

**Percy:**

How is Annabeth so good at this? This isn't even _possible_. Earlier today, I walked into Annabeth's room, and she was trying to solve her Rubik's Cube.

"Why do you do that for fun?" I asked.

"It makes you think," She replied without taking her eyes off of the cube.

"It's so boring"

"Well, I like to do it"

"So, these are basically the things you do for fun?"

"Yup," She answered as she put the solved cube down.

I walked out of her room and back into mine. Sometimes, she can be so _boring. _Just the thought of having a day like Annabeth's fills me with tedium. Its Annabeth life and I know these things are enjoyable to her, but I feel like she really does want to do something different. I do think she enjoys these boring things because she has not been able to actually do something _fun_. Annabeth needs some fun; she needs some _amusement. _Suddenly an idea hit me. I quickly walked back to her room.

"Annabeth, have you ever been to an amusement park?" I asked before I even fully entered her room.

She finally put her Rubik's Cube down and turned to look at me,"No."

"Well, then you're going to go to one!"

"When?"

"We can go today!" I answered, realizing that it was Saturday morning.

"That sounds really fun, but I can go today!" She answered hesitantly.

I ignored her, and started to drag her away from her tedious Rubik's Cube.

"I have an English paper due on Tuesday, and there is a history report due Monday! Isn't there also a biology project due?!" Annabeth continued to babble about all the homework she had to do. "You haven't asked Chiron, yet?"

"I'm about to!"

I asked Annabeth stay in the living room, which she did, as I entered into Chiron's office. Chiron is usually there, so I always go there first when I'm looking for him. As soon as I peeked into the room, sure enough, I saw Chiron was there.

"Morning," Chiron greeted me. "What do you want?"

"Can Annabeth and I go to the amusement park, today?" I asked trying to sound extra sweet, which I'm sure I failed at.

"You guys can go on your date when the chores are done," Chiron replied.

"It's not a date!"

"Whatever you say..." Chiron said as a grin started to form on his face.

I walked out and told Annabeth that we could go after we finished our chores and immediately began my chore. I decided to sweep today. Most of the chores were still open, and that is usually the most desired chore, so I had to take it. When I went to the kitchen to sweep, I noticed that Grover was also doing a job in the kitchen (washing the dishes).

He told me some things about school, but I didn't really listen because I was rushing to sweep as fast as I can to try to finish my chore as fast as possible, so we could get to the amusement park, but Grover didn't know this.

"Why are you sweeping so fast?" Grover asked me, making me slow down to answer him

"When I finish, I can take Annabeth to the amusement park," I answered and continued to sweep.

"You're going on a date with Annabeth?" He asked.

"It's not a date!" I insisted. "Why does everyone think it's a date?!"

"You and Annabeth are going to a place? Alone? To spend time together? Percy, that it is a date!" Grover insisted.

"Well, um, wait,...it's not a date!"

**XXX**

"How far away is the amusement park?" Annabeth asked me as I gave a puzzling look to the map that she handed to me.

A map? A _MAP?! _ Could you given it to anyone worse? Maps and I don't go together; we don't like each other; we don't work well together. I can't read a map. I can read probably read Chinese better than I can read a map. I'm that confused.

"If you rely on directions from me with a map, we will most likely end up somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean!" I said and dramatically pushed the map away from me and into Annabeth's hands. "We don't need a map, anyways. I know exactly where it is. I used to go there all the time."

"Fine! We won't use a map, but if we get lost-"

"We won't!" I said interrupting her, and snatching the map from her and throwing it away

"My map!" She said, and hit my arm. "You owe me a new map!"

"We'll have to get a ride. The amusement park is too far away to walk from here." I said , trying to changing the subject about maps. Even talking about maps gave me a headache.

Luckily, we live right next to a subway, so we were conveniently able to catch one. The subway wasn't busy because it was Saturday morning. I didn't expect it to be crowded. We took a few different routes, and we arrived near the park in about 30 minutes.

I really wanted to go the amusement park. I completely forgot how much I loved that place. Some of my best memories as a kid came from that place. An amusement park is every kids favorite place. I ate (way too much) candy, threw up on the rides, ate more food, and did other stupid things. It was thrilling, exciting, and everything else that made be overjoyed. I felt the essence of fun, and I wasn't even inside the park.

"We're here!" I announced in an enthusiastic way.

I looked through the entrance gate and saw all of the colorful lights flashing everywhere. I could hear the roller coasters racing across the tracks and the joyful outbursts off the people on them. It was good to be back and even better to bring Annabeth here.

I turned toward Annabeth, "What do you want to do first?"

Annabeth's face glowed up as she looked around,"I want to go on the ferris wheel," Annabeth replied as she pointed toward the 65 feet ferris wheel.

I have never ridden the ferris wheel before even though I have been here several times. I came to the amusement park for the roller coasters when I was younger not the ferris wheel. It was too slow and calm for my liking.

"Okay," I said as I walked up to the person at the entrance that sold the tickets,"Let me buy tickets."

"I will pay for mine" Annabeth protested, which I expected because I know how stubborn she is.

"No, I'll buy your ticket for you."

"Thanks for the offer, but I insist on buying my own ticket," Annabeth insisted again.

After a point, I ignored her and bought her for her ticket anyway. Her protests eventually subsided, but she continued make to comments like "I'll pay you back" and or "I am paying next time!".

We waited in the line for the ferris wheel for a long time, but it didn't bother me because Annabeth and I were able to have quality time to talk. With all the talking, it made the time we waited in line didn't seem that long. Now that I think about it, I have nevered been on a ride with someone else, not even my mom. She didn't like heights because her parents died in a plane accident, so I always rode on the rides alone. I didn't really have many friends to come with me either.

The person that admitted the people onto the ferris wheel seated us.

As the enclosed cart thing started to rise higher of the ground, I began feeling almost light headed. The height was not the thing bothering me. I didn't like being too high, but I didn't have a fear of heights. The tight enclosed space in the cart was bothering me. I am claustrophobic. I don't like being in small spaces. That's one of the reasons why I love the ocean; it's open. It has no walls or boundaries. This is another reason why I never rode a Ferris wheel.

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked when she noticed that I was slightly pale.

"I'm fine," I replied, not very convincingly.

"Are you scared of heights?"

"No, I'm scared of small, enclosed spaces; I'm claustrophobic."

"What? Why didn't you tell me that earlier? I wouldn't have made you get in here!" Annabeth said.

"It's okay. I'll live. You seemed like you really wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, and I didn't want to disappoint you. And I also forgot about my claustrophobia until I was already in this thing," I said.

"Your such a seaweed brain! How can you forget about a phobia that you have?" She didn't sound so concerned anymore.

**XXX**

We continued on a few more rides (mostly roller coasters) before we decided to eat something.

"What do you want to eat?," I asked while scanning through the over-priced variety of food stands.

"I don't know...a salad?" She answered, but she sounded like she was asking a question.

"Okay," I responded while taking out my wallet.

She began to pull out her wallet but I interrupted,"What are you doing?"

"Paying for my food," She answered.

"It's fine. I'll pay for your food," I insisted. You can't make the person you're taking out pay.

"Why are you always so against me paying for myself?"

"It's not gentlemanly-like. _'Hey want to go to the amusement park with me?'_ '_Yeah sure!' 'Great, here's the check!'_ No, I'm not doing that!" I insisted. Annabeth rolled her eyes while I walked to the food stand.

This is probably the worst part about going to the amusement park—everything is overpriced. This is usually how it goes with the cashier:

Me: Can I have a bottle of water?

Cashier:That would be $4.00 (£ 2.46)

Me: WHAT?!

Cashier: It's actually on sale.  
Me: ...

Anyway, I pulled out much more money then need to compensate for the overpriced stands as I approached the cash register. The prices were probably one of the reasons why Annabeth was so hesitant to let me pay for her food, the prices for way too high so she didn't want me paying them for her. Annabeth feels responsible for herself therefore she feels the need to have to provide for herself.

The cashiers smiled at me warmly as all should because of the customers are "always right". I ordered my food and made my way back to a bench in the center of the park, where Annabeth was waiting for me. Annabeth soon came into vision as I made my way closer to the center of the amusement park.

I handed her her food, and we began to eat. We didn't actually talk about anything important; instead, we were talking for more as a time passer.

"How do like the foster house?" I asked. I just realized that I haven't asked her that. As soon as I said "foster", she tensed. I could tell that she refers to it as a home, and probably forgot it was a foster home.

"You know that I love it there," She said.

"How did you get there?" As soon as that came out of mouth, I regretted it. That was probably something she doesn't want to talk about.

"My father—" She began.

"You don't have to tell me" I replied, interrupting her.

"No, I want to. Anyways, it's quite simple actually—my father didn't want me in the house anymore because my stepmother didn't like me,"She replied like it wasn't a big deal, and it had lost meaning to her.

After that we ate, in an eerie, but healthy silence. The silence made me think about how sad all of our lives really are. I never wanted to accept the sadness of my reality. Even though deep down I know that some may view my life as sad, but I am continuously happy, and sometimes people wonder how I, and many others, are so happy when when their life's seem to be filled with problems. But I have came to realize that being happy is not about having a perfect life without problems because everyone has problems, so happiness is about being able to handle problems. At that moment, I felt happier than I have ever been. I was reminded in why I am happy to wake up every morning, enjoy the sunlight, breath fresh air, which makes me grateful for everything that I've ever had.

**XXX**

We were on our way home. I felt pleased with how the day had went. I got to do a whole bunch of things I never got to do in such a long time, which was mostly ride roller coasters. Before today, do you know how long it has been since I have rode a roller coaster? Too long.

Annabeth was not too excited about riding roller coasters because of a bunch of lame excuses "it isn't safe!" or "the dollar coasters have too many germs".

"I had a lot of fun today," Annabeth said sounding so far away,while looking out the window that i wants really sure if she was talking to me or herself.

"Me too," I replied.

She turned to me,"I'm sure our second will be even better."

"Our second what?"

"Our second date."

**Alright, I don't know about you guys, but i don't think this was exactly my best chapter. It has been hard to find the time to make them better. The next chapters will be better. **

**Please review, follow, and favorite!**

**Thanks for ready!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	14. Chapter 14

**You guys must hate me. I feel like such a rotten writer. My last chapter ended with a bad cliffhanger and I didn't update in what-**_**3 months**_**? Anyways, I could give you a laundry list of excuses, but it won't really make a difference.**

**Also, I was reading over my last chapter and saw some glaring mistakes. (That's what I get for decided that it would be okay to type the entire chapter on my phone.) So, I apologize. It is so bad that I might replace it.**

**I really appreciate how patient some of you have been and how willing you are to still read my story! I immensely appreciate all the reviews, follows, and favorites!**

**Now, finally, please enjoy!**

**Annabeth:**

"Our second date," I replied but a part of me started to regret what I said as the words escaped my mouth, but, at the same time, the other part of me felt relieved that I said that.

After staring into Percy's eyes for about a second after my reply, I quickly turned my head the other way to face the window instead of him. It was a, somewhat, bold thing to say, but I had a feeling that, deep in Percy's subconscious mind, he was hoping that it was a date. Percy is sometimes just too oblivious sometimes to know what other people are thinking or even what he (himself) is thinking.

I not sure what I expected him to say, what I wanted him to say, or if he was going to say anything at all, but I was kind of hoping he would say something like _"Yeah, totally! We should go to [blank] next time!"_, as if it was no big deal, and he had seen it as a date the entire time but, honestly, I would be surprised if he said anything at all.

I turned back at him to see his slightly vacant expression. He looked like he was about to say something but he didn't say anything, which made me a little bit worried because I knew that he was thinking about what to say, and if he is thinking about what to say, he is thinking about how to reply to _what I said_, which means he is thinking about what I said, which is exactly what I didn't want—him thinking about it.

Pushing all my irrational concerns away, Percy spoke up, "Of course it will", he said in a almost nonchalant voice while grinning at me.

**XXX**

It was too late. I originally vowed not to make any friends, date anyone, etc. because I have to leave every time I start to feel like I finally belonged and I was a part of the foster care. I had to leave every family I had and start a new life, at a new place, and lose everyone that I had lived with.

But I felt like I was a part of this place. I had friends; I had _family_. No matter where I go, who I met, or whatever happens, they will always be my family and nothing can ever change that. At first, I looked at this place as a temporary home; I felt that this was just a stop on the way to my _home_, but now I realize I am home.

Suddenly I heard a knock on of the door. I shot up from my chair, hoping that Percy would be at the door. When I opened the door, I quickly realized that it was exactly who I wanted it to be.

"Hi," I said while smiling to him. "Whatcha doing here?"

"Nothing, I'm just bored. If you're busy, I could leave-" He said as he began to turn around.

I pulled him in before he could.

"I'm not busy. I'm actually really glad you came. I was basically just tediously staring at the wall for the past few minutes," I told him while I closed the door behind him.

We mainly talked about school, which is usually one of my favorite-if not my favorite-things to talk about, but it wasn't what I wanted to talk about at the time. Percy made me not want to talk about school; all I wanted to do was to have some fun together.

"Hey, Percy? Wanna go do something fun?" I interrupted him in the middle of his little rant of complaints about tests that I wasn't genuinely listening to.

"What is this? Annabeth Chase wants to have _fun_?" Percy teased. "I'm so proud. I'm beginning to influence you!'

"Unfortunately."

"Hey!"

I smiled at him. He exaggerated my boring-ness, right? I'm not really _that _boring or am I? If he thinks I'm boring, he really is oblivious because I think I have too much fun sometimes.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked him in an attempt to rear the conversation back on point.

"_Me_? What do you want to do? You're the one who suggested on doing something."

Percy was actually right. There were plenty of places I wanted to go and several things I have always wanted to do, but I never mentioned them. Think Annabeth-what is a place I have always wanted to go? I went through my small mental checklist. Amusement park? Check. Lincoln Memorial? Check. Then suddenly it hits me. I love architecture, and I have never seen one of the most famous, amazing pieces of architecture in this country-The Statue of Liberty.

My face lit up just to think of the opportunity to see the amazing monument, but I hesitated to mention my request to see "Lady Liberty". I didn't want to tell Percy that I desperately wanted to go because I was afraid that it would be too much to ask. Making someone stop what they're doing and take you to a national monument seemed like a heavy request. Maybe I could go in the summer.

"What did you think of?" Percy questioned. He could tell that I have thought of the place that I wanted to go and I just wasn't telling him.

"It's nothing," I replied letting the excitement in my voice die back down to where it was before.

"It's something"

"Nothing!"

"Something!" Percy retaliated. "I would be more than happy to take you wherever you want to go. I need to go out and 'smell the daisies' anyway."

"Well, I have always wanted...,"Percy got a little closer and put his hand behind his ear to initate that he was listening, "...to see The Statue of Liberty."

Percy looked at me with an enigmatic _have-you-been-living-under-a-rock?_ expression as if I was an alien and I had just fell from another planet, "You, an architect guru who has lived in New York, has _never, _up close and in person, seen The Statue of Liberty?"

"I've always wanted to," I answered.

"Well, we have to go immediately!"He insisted.

I thought he was joking. The effort he was putting in to try to get me to see The Statue of Liberty was very much appreciated and all, but you can't just go to a national monument without any plans to or any other type of preparation.

Everything needs to have some type of planned structure, or it is condemned to fail. Maybe that's why I am sometimes hesitant to do things. I am afraid that I didn't prepare enough, and I will fail because of it. I learned that there will always be an extra _second_; there will always be another way that you could have executed something that would've been a more efficient way.

"But-"

"You can _see_ The Statue of Liberty from here. There is no excuse why we can't go," He said, cutting my explanation even before I was able to begin it. "As soon as we are able to go, we are going to go!"

**XXX**

"Do you know an adult who could accompany us on the trip?" Percy asked me later that day while he was making reservations.

My thoughts immediately went to Chiron. Isn't Chiron the obvious choice? It made me wonder why Percy was even asking me. Maybe he was curious of which adult I preferred to be with. There were only two adults-Dionysus and Chiron-and I preferred Chiron greatly over Dionysus.

"Chiron," I answered with a _duh!_ tone in my voice.

"Yeah, I was thinking of him too, but we have one problem..."He answered.

"What is it?"

"He might be too tall," Percy answered. "The height limit for traveling up to the crown is 6'2."

That sounded almost unfair to me. A tall person isn't allowed to have the amazing experience of being able to look down onto the city on a national monument. But they are tall, and tall people get a lot of advantages. That's life. People aren't always equal, but there are pros' and cons' for everything.

I didn't realize, but while I was thinking through that little dilemma, Percy was already halfway down the hall, most likely heading towards Chiron's office to ask his height. I followed behind him, also wanting to know Chiron's response or if Percy was even going to ask the question I thought he was going to.

Percy knocked on the door and waited for Chiron to answer. He rocked from foot-foot, obviously trying to avoid being still. Percy was hyper-being still and quiet just isn't his thing. This is one of his many qualities that make me go crazy sometimes but, at other times, make me smile.

The door suddenly opened breaking me out of my train-of-thought.

Chiron greeted us with a welcoming smile, "What do you need?"

"How tall are you?" Percy randomly asked.

Wow, really smooth Percy! Seriously I need to teach this boy to stop being so impulsive. First you need explain the situation before you ask a completely random question, so you don't seem...weird, I guess you could say. I gave Percy a _you-lack-common-sense _look.

"Um...,"Chiron began to reply. The question obviously caught him off-guard.

So, I began to explain what the situation was that caused us to need to know his height. I did not tell him the height he had to be under because I didn't want him to be hesitant to tell me his actual height if he wasn't under 6'2.

"Um, I think I am 6'3," Chiron replied while looking up at the wall, trying to recall the memory.

I winced and looked at Percy. _So close-_-He had to be just one inch too tall. I started to think. You know 6'3 is very close to 6'2, _and _he said he _thought _he was that height. There is a chance that he recalled the wrong height or he incorrectly measured his height.

"There is only one way to be sure," I said as I ran upstairs, looking for Leo, a boy very handy with tools, to see if I could borrow his tape measure.

**XXX**

"So who else is going to take us?" I asked Percy right after I returned Leo his tape measure.

My mind immediately went to the person I was hoping we could avoid-Mr. D. _No._ I will not be chaperoned by Mr. D. Nothing is wrong with him. He just doesn't like people in general. It is almost as if he is a god and everyone else in the world is a mistake. He doesn't really care about people enough to even learn their names. I can't imagine him being our chaperone.

"I think that Mr. D. might be our last resort," Percy answered, not sounding very euphoric.

"He's going to say no. I don't even think we have to ask," I don't think Mr. D. is willing to spend that much time on us, honestly.

"We can at least try to ask," Percy insisted as he headed toward the direction of the living room, which is usually where Mr. D. is.

There is no way that Mr. D. will agree to this. If he does, I will most likely be suspicious of what type of set-up he is planning. Percy has known Mr. D. longer than I have, so I think he knows it is unlikely that Mr. D. will agree, to be honest. I think Percy just wants to ask him to keep me hopeful that we will be able to go, but I was smarter than that. I could see right through.

"Knock, knock!" Percy said to indicate that he wanted to talk to Mr. D. when we reached the living room because there wasn't exactly a door to the living room.

"Yes, Peter?" Dionysus answered without even looking at Percy.

"Percy," I corrected unhesitatingly.

"Whatever, Annabelle!"

"Anyway, "Percy began, trying to change the subject back to what it should be, "We-"

I quickly cut him off, recalling how badly impulsive Percy is. Chiron is much more understanding than Mr. D. If Percy says something stupid to Mr. D., it could reduce the very small chance that we already had of getting him to cooperate. I explained the situation in my nicest voice with a tone of pleading. Mr. D. must have a heart deep down.

"So could you please chaperone us?" I said, closing up the conversation in my sweetest voice. You know begging is not my thing; I prefer threatening.

"No," Mr. D. answered without hesitation nor did he look at us in his response.

I wasn't surprised at all, but Percy persisted, "Why?"

"I have better things to do," Mr. D. responded without much thought.

Mr. D. still didn't care enough to peel his eyes off of the television screen to look at Percy to notice that he was glaring at him.

I felt a little gloomy. Not because I wasn't able to go sight-seeing; I was upset because the one time I ask a person just to be my acquaintance, they aren't willing to. Every adult I grew up with was the same way. If my wishes didn't benefit them, they weren't worth the time. That was one of the reasons why I was almost fine with leaving. I thought I would finally be able to get away from that, but I guess not.

"Don't worry. We will be able to go," Percy whispered to me.

I turned around and started walking back to my room, but Percy remained still and didn't move a muscle. I want sure what he was waiting for. Percy still didn't step out of the living room by the time he rendered out my eye sight.

I thought it was so sweet that Percy was being so persistent. He was doing all of this just so he can fulfill some minor trip that I have wanted to take. Someday, I'm going to have to repay him for everything he has done just to try to make me happy; I'm going to repay him for making me feel like I belong; I'm going to repay him for being that one person that believed in me before anyone else did or would no one would.

**Man, it's good to be back. Writing this chapter made me realize how much I missed this story. Not much happened in this chapter, I know, but I'm trying to set it up and save the best parts for the next chapter. I am going to update as soon as possible (yet, I said this on my last chapter, but I didn't update for months, but I promise that won't happen!). **

**Okay, anyway, my author's notes are getting too long, so I better get to the point. The next chapter will be in Percy's POV (Yea! I was dying to change POVs in the middle of the chapter, but I never do that, so I couldn't). **

**Please review, follow, and favorite! These were the things that made me start writing this sorry again!**

**Thank you so much for reading and keeping this story alive!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi everyone! I'm excited because this is my 15th chapter! I'm so happy that I am able to update on time. Thank you for supporting my story! I want to especially thank Athenasisters for dedicating time to try to help me be a better writer and always supporting me no matter what.**

**By the way, I also uploaded a new cover for the story. Since I'm not very good with technology, it took a ridiculous amount of time. Tell me what you think!**

**Thank you so much for all the follows, favorites, and reviews!**

**Enjoy!**

**Percy:**

I stood there for a few seconds after Annabeth left. I noticed that Annabeth was gone and probably already in her room by now. I stood there like a painted person. Patiently and quietly (two things I am usually not), I waited for Mr. D. to notice that I was still there. I may not have been doing anything, but I was defiantly still there.

After awhile of quietly waiting, Mr. D. finally bothered to look up and noticed that I was still there. I glared at him, making sure that he knows that I wasn't happy with him. He didn't care, and, usually, I don't care either.

I just felt like Mr. D. could have, and should have, agreed to "chaperone" us. I don't usual pout when I don't get what I want, but this isn't about me anymore. All Mr. D. has to do is come with us, which would probably be good for him, but he refuses probably to blatantly annoy us.

"Why are you still here, Peter?" Mr. D. questioned.

"You know, Annabeth has always felt like no adult would never be there for her. All you had to do was agree to make her happy, but you aren't even willing to do that. All Annabeth has ever known in her life is that no adult ever even cared enough to give a second thought-"

"Annabelle-" Mr. D. started to interrupt me.

I interrupted him and spoke louder in an attempt to talk over his interruption, "And you just confirmed to her that the majority of guardians she has had really don't care. All Annabeth has ever wanted were friends; all Annabeth ever wanted was a family; all Annabeth ever wanted were _parents_, but you obviously don't care. Now, Annabeth is probably in her room thinking that no matter where she goes, she will never have the parents that she dreamed about."

"Annabeth now knows that when she needs you, you're not willing to help her," I said to Mr. D. who was about to say something but didn't.

Chiron did care about her, but you don't think that it doesn't hurt when someone who is supposed to be a guardian isn't even willing to learn your name?

**XXX**

I knocked on Annabeth's door to see how she was doing, and she quickly answered,"Hey!"

She pulled me in and closed the door behind me, "Why were you down there with Mr. D. so long?"

"I just wanted to talk to him about some things. That's all," I answered.

The facial expressions on Annabeth's face showed that didn't answer all the questions she had, but she didn't ask any else.

She started to tell me about the book she was reading, but, as much as I tried to pay attention to what she was saying, I couldn't. This is another reason why I think we need to go to places and do activities-we are desperately running out of things to talk about.

I nodded and grinned at her as she gave me her little review, but I think she knew that I was not listening. Annabeth finished her review anyway, and then we just sat in silence. My brain was scanning through a list of things that I could say to break the silence.

"If you had to give up one of your senses, what would it be?" I asked. It was random and not a normal question, but I just spat out the first 'conversation starter' I could think of.

She thought for a second but not very long," My taste."

"I couldn't go through life without my taste. The taste if junk food is irreplaceable. I think I would give up my smell," I responded.

"Percy, your taste and your smell are extremely closely related. You wouldn't lose how the foods taste to you, but the foods wouldn't taste_ good _anymore. You don't realize that you lose your sense of taste physiologically instead psychologically, not because your sense of taste is affected but because 80% of what we consider to be tasty food comes from how they smell."

"Wow" I answered.

"When you give up smell you are giving up the thing that makes taste important to you. So basically, you lose both senses by choosing smell, but if you chose taste, you only loose one," Annabeth exclaimed and smiled at me.

"Well that changed by mind..."

"Did I just blow your mind?" Annabeth asked with a smirk on her face.

"Yes, you did. You are too smart."

Annabeth thinks through everything and that's one thing that makes her amazing. Someday Annabeth is going to achieve all of her goals because she deserves it. Annabeth has spent thousands of hours studying and, that is what is going to make her successful. Annabeth really does deserve more than life has been giving her.

"Annabeth, but if you lost your taste but not your smell, you would have to through life smelling things, but you will never be able to taste it. So, basically, a big part of your life would just be wanting things that you will never be able to have, "I mentioned to her after awhile of thought.

Annabeth shrugged, "I'm kind of used to it."

This made me even madder at Mr. D. then I already was. Annabeth shouldn't have to get use to not being able to have things that she wants.

After talking a little while about how much of a crazy genius she is, I asked, "You want to go out and eat lunch?"

"Yeah, I'm hungry, and I'm bored from staying in this room," She answered.

"Where do want to go?" I asked.

"I don't care. We can just go to the first restaurant we see."

"Awesome," I replied while running to my room to get my wallet.

Annabeth knows that I like to pay when we go out, regardless of where we are or what we are buying. It makes me cringe to even see her pay parts of the check. Call me old-fashioned, but when you take someone out, I don't think that they should be forced to pay because it is suppose to be like your gift to them. After a while, I think Annabeth realized that it is going to be a while before I relent on paying.

As we were on our way out the door, I heard a familiar voice, "Hold up, Peter and Annabelle!"

I turned around and looked at him to indicate that I was waiting for his words.

"Make sure that you buy anything that you want for _our _visit to the Statue of Liberty while you are out," Dionysus relied, casually.

I looked back at Mr. D. with a almost grateful look.

"Now leave me to my peace before I change my mind!" He hissed at us.

I think that he didn't want to admit that he had done something nice to us.

**XXX**

"Hurry up!" Mr. D. screeched at us as he headed out the door as Annabeth and I as we shuffled out of our rooms.

I grabbed the backpack out of the corner that I had prepared. Despite the fact the Mr. D. was rushing us, I felt the need to check through the backpack probably for the fourth time that day. You know when you have _I-know-I-forgot-something-but-I-don't-know-what_ feeling? Well, I was having a terrible case of that.

There must be something that I hadn't remembered. Maybe it was an item; maybe it was a rule; maybe it was an idea. I want to make sure that whatever it is, that it isn't an important item. Like, you don't know how worried I am-I'm so worried that I made a _list_. I know-Percy Jackson making a list and organizing materials? Unheard of.

Bottles of water. Check. Camera. Check. Snacks. Check. This thing is starting to make me pull out my hair.

"Annabeth!" I yelled. Annabeth's room is directly next to mine. She could hear me, and I felt too lazy to walk all the way out the door.

"What?" I heard her yell back.

"Do you need anything else that isn't on the list?"

"No! Percy, stop worrying about that! We need to hurry!"

"I'm on my way!" I responded.

I looked down at the floor, desperately tried to recall everything. Now, I felt like I could almost guarantee that I haven't forgotten an item. I tried to go through my checklist one again; Annabeth interrupted me by telling me to hurry up.

I used my arm and just started sweeping random items into the backpack. My backpack was very heavy afterwards, but I felt much better.

"Coming!" I ran outside to see Mr. D. with an impatient, annoyed expression on his face

"You take longer than the girl," Mr. D. said to me as I opened the car door.

I ignored him and sat down next to Annabeth.

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked, probably because she could notice that something was wrong.

"I forgot something,"I blatantly said to her.

"Well, go get it!"

"I don't know what I forgot!"

"What?"

"I just have a feeling that I'm forgetting something, "I replied to her.

Annabeth nodded her head at me, "Don't worry about it."

Her words didn't help me calm down; I didn't expect them to. I don't know why I was stressing out so much about it. I just felt like it was important. Also, I wanted to make sure everything was perfect, so it was bothering me that I had a feeling that I forgot something-something important.

Annabeth reached for my backpack and checked through it to reassure me that I didn't forget anything.

"Everything is here, "She shuffled through it a little more,"...Maybe even more than needed, "She said as she pulled out a bottle of toothpaste. It was probably one of the items I had randomly swept in.

We sat in the car for only about ten minutes as the ferry we were suppose to ride to Liberty Island came into view.

As we stepped out of the car, I took a deep breath of the ocean breeze. The ocean made me feel safe and at peace, I felt less vexed being around it. I felt free;I felt liberated. I wish that I could just live around the ocean. Someday, I going to get a beach-house, and I'm just going to sit on the shore and swim in the ocean all day.

Travelling on the ferry made me feel even more serene. Being in the ocean made me euphoric in the most settle and clam way. Everything feels okay because I feel safe, with the bright sun beaming down on the waves in the horizon.

The tour guide was saying things about the island and the history of the statue, and I could tell that Annabeth was captivated by the presentation, but I wasn't listening. To be honest, I thought I was going to fall asleep if I haven't been so engrossed by the ocean.

"We will arrive on Liberty Statue in a few minutes!" The tour guide's voice rang.

I looked over at Annabeth and saw her covering her eyes with her hands, trying to block the sun.

"You do know there is a hat in the backpack,right? "I said to her.

She turned to me slowly, "You're trying to tell me that I have been squinting and blocking the sun with my hand for the past fifteen minutes, and, now, when we are about to get off, is when you tell me?"

I grinned, "I didn't notice that the sun was bothering you."

She snatched the hat from the backpack, "You're such a Seaweed Brain."

**XXX**

"I think I'm going to pass out. It's so amazing!" Annabeth exclaimed looking up at the statue.

I have been to The Statue of Liberty several times, and it looks more amazing every time. The large statue made me feel light-headed because it was so unrealistically tall.

"Nothing special, "Mr. D. said without even looking up from the newspaper he was reading.

The words didn't even seem to get to Annabeth's ears. Nothing could wipe the smile off of her face. She inventively listened to the tour guide even though I was sure that she already knew everything the tour guide was saying.

We began to make our way into the building. The view was a beautiful portrait of how far we have came in humanity. It's always nice to look back to a world that is simple and isn't developed, but I appreciated living in a city.

"We will be climbing up the stairs after the tour of the base!"The tour guide announced.

Suddenly we approached the staircase that led to the crown of the statue, and it hit me. I knew exactly what I had forgotten. I quickly tensed. All the color drained out of my face. Annabeth noticed and she got concerned.

"What?" She asked putting a hand on my shoulder.

I thought that she would have figured it out by now,so I simply replied, "Space."

Immediately, she knew exactly what I was talking about. When we went to the amusement park, I told her that I was claustrophobic. Looking at the small space of the staircase made me feel so light-headed, that I was barely able to stand. I desperately wanted to run back out to the ocean where there were no restraints and there is unlimited openness, but I felt like the more scared I got of the small space, the more I was ruining Annabeth's trip.

"I'll be okay," I reassured her, but I was genuinely afraid that I was going to pass out. Oh well.

"I don't believe you."

"Why not?"

"You don't look good at all, and we aren't even on the stairs."

"This is a chance to get over my fear, "I answered.

"Why are you so insistent on going?"

"I'm more afraid of disappointing you than I am of small spaces," I assured her.

Annabeth voice got a little gentler, "You are crazy in the most endearing way, but I don't want to go if it means seeing you so stressed."

She thinks I'm endearing? Well, I felt like a dream-killer. I'm making Annabeth give up something she has always wanted to do because I am too much of a chicken. I have to go up the staircase.

"No, I'm fine,"I answered her.

"Listen, the fact that you are so willing to make me happy means so much more to me than going up to the crown."

I thought Annabeth was just being too sweet. She was giving up something she has always wanted to do for me.

**XXX**

Even though we were home, sitting in my room, I still felt guilty because I think that I still disappointed Annabeth. If someone else would've taken her, she would've been able to go to the crown. It hurts my heart that I couldn't do the things for her that someone else could but aren't willing to.

"Stop it," Annabeth said to me.

"What?"

"Stop feeling bad!"

"But-"

She interrupted me with a kiss.

**What do you think? How was it? Let me know in your reviews! The next chapter will be in Annabeth's POV. I hope you guys enjoyed my fifteen chapters. Thank you so much for all the support I have seen in the past fifteen chapters! **

**I also want to apologize for any errors that I might have missed because I made hundreds of corrections. I would've updated a few days sooner, but some storms have been hitting us pretty hard, so I hope everyone is doing okay.**

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**Thanks for reading!**

**-h0a4l2e1y**


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